Government Issue
by Gib
Summary: Companion piece to my other stories, Viper and Hogan's Alley - G.I. Jack and Mac Series
1. Chapter 1

A/N: A while back, after I posted my other story _Viper_ , Ridley C. James made the suggestion that I should turn these MacGyver military years into a series. So, I blame her for this. ;-).

This story picks right up where _Viper_ left off. I thought about just adding chapters to that but the mission was over... It's not essential that you read _Hogan's Alley_ or _Viper_ but it would help with some of the background. BTW, I pretty much threw the military handbook out the widow with this one, apologies to any veterans, this is just for fun.

As always, a huge thanks goes to Dlwells51, she fixes everything I write, except my A/N's that are probably riddled with grammar and punctuation errors. She's got quite a few bits of her own original content in this one. I couldn't post without her.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with the TV show MacGyver.

 **0-0-0**

Jack pulled the door open and was instantly hit by the wave of cool air. Quickly stepping inside, he let his eyes adjust from the blinding sun outside to the warmer softer glow of fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling of the field hospital.

He had spent the better part of the last forty eight hours in the tactical operations center monitoring the radio communications of his men. They had called in several air strikes since he and Mac had been medevac'd to the forward operating base.

Jack knew the staff in the TOC had everything under control, they were, after all, the best at what they did. He just felt the need to be there in some form or another for his men, even if it was just to listen and occasionally provide the staff with a better description of the area that had been designated as Viper Nest.

The original mission was to find and destroy a large weapons cache intelligence suspected might be in the area.

According to his guys, that leg of the op hadn't panned out. Now, they were sitting on top of a mountain calling in air strikes against the last of the hardened positions left in the canyon.

Jack suspected he'd see his men back on base sometime that evening.

He looked at his watch as he walked down the hall. The last time he had visited Mac he'd asked the nurse when the doctor was going to come by. At the time, she said she didn't know. By the time he left to go back to the TOC, the nurse told him that the doctor would be making his rounds at fourteen hundred hours.

Jack knocked once as he opened the door. "Hey man, you seen the doc yet?"

Mac looked up from the notepad he was writing in. "No, not yet." He watched from the chair as Jack walked in and Fosbury flopped into the bed and lay back with a long sigh. "Man I am beat."

"Have you even slept since you were here last night?" Mac gave Jack a stern look and pointed at Jack's wrist, "and you still haven't had that checked have you?"

Jack put his left hand behind his head and looked sideways at Mac. "I had to go to the TOC, Coop, Dunc and Pete were in the mix for a while, they should be back later tonight."

Mac had spent time with Boxer in the TOC once when Jack and the rest of the unit had been out on a mission that didn't require his expertise.

He knew from that experience that when a member of the unit was present in the TOC, unless they had pertinent intel, their role was more observer than active participant. Mac stood up, taking two long strides to stand in front of the locker that held spare linens and his clothes. "You had to do no such thing and you know it Jack! I swear, you are the most stubborn," he yanked his pants out, throwing them in the chair, "pigheaded," the shirt was next, "stupid son of a bitch," he grabbed his boots and socks. "I have ever met!"

"You planing on going some where?" Jack sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Knowing what had set Mac off, he looked down at his wrist, his hand had swollen and the bruising had traveled to his fingers.

Mac slammed his boots and socks on the floor, reached over and grabbed his pants, stepping in, hastily fastening the buttons and cinching the belt. He was taking his frustrations out on his wardrobe. "I'm getting out of here." Mac waved his hand around the room and picked up his shirt. "I've spent almost two days in this place..." he pulled his shirt on, and continued before his face had even cleared the collar. "...because I got hit by a damn rock!" Mac dropped into the chair and shook out his socks, bending over he yanked them onto his feet as he looked up at Jack. "If you don't need to be here after getting impaled by a freaking piece of metal..." Mac pulled his boot on, then stomped on the floor, "then I don't have to be here either!" Another boot, another stomp, causing Jack to cringe.

Jack raised his left hand, "Now wait a minute Mac, you had a damn rock stuck in your back, all the dirt too!" He held up his right hand, "I got hit by metal man, stuff was still hot so... no infection _and_ I've been keeping it clean."

Mac looked up from tying his boots tighter than need be, the look on his face was somewhere between pissed, surprise and wonder at Jack's reasoning. "That's your argument?" He leaned back in the chair, now fully clothed and threw up his hands, "The metal was still hot? Jack you..." Mac's animated rebuttal was interrupted by a knock on the door as the Doctor walked in.

Jack noted the rank of Captain and his name tag said Morgan. Jack was a bit surprised by the doctor's age. He had become accustomed to seeing younger doctor's at the forward operating base, whereas this man had salt and pepper hair and looked to be in great shape judging by the way his uniform fit, he carried himself with confidence. On appearance alone, he had Jack's approval.

The doctor looked up from his chart, nodded to Mac, "Mac."

"Doc." Mac glanced up as he finished tying his boot.

The Doctor glanced from Mac to Jack who was still sitting on the bed and smirked. "So, which one of you is my patient today?"

Both men pointed at each other and said in unison, "He is!"

Jack shot Mac an annoyed look, pushing himself off the bed and heading for the door. "I gotta go, I'll catch up with you later Mac."

The Doctor watched the exchange and studied Jack with a practiced eye as he neared. "Hold on there soldier, who treated that hand?" He asked, placing a hand in the middle of Jack's chest stopping his forward progress.

Jack glanced at the man's hand before looking up and making eye contact. All manner of moves he could use on the man ran through his head in a flash. Weighing his options, he decided escape and evade was the best course of action.

Jack looked at his watch, "Look, Captain I've gotta head over to the TOC, have men in the field right now."

Mac made eye contact with Morgan and shook his head.

Mac knew the tactic, he'd seen Jack use it on several occasions.

Since most of the spec ops guys had beards and usually wore civilian clothes, everyone knew who they were simply by their appearance, they just didn't know _who_ they were.

Jack was wearing his regular BDU pants with a faded burnt orange Texas Longhorns t-shirt.

Jack's SOP, was to address someone by their rank and make whatever he said sound like an order. Usually the other person, not knowing Jack's rank but understanding they were talking to a spec. ops guy, caved and did whatever Jack wanted.

Mac stood up, determined not to let Jack get away with it this time, only to stop when the Doctor stood his ground.

"I don't care who you think you are soldier but let me tell you what I see, then you can decide if you still want to leave."

Jack stepped back and cocked his head, trying his best to look perturbed.

"You see how that hand is swelling and your fingers are bruising?"

Jack rolled his eyes, "Of course I see it, it's my hand Doc. What's your point?" Jack changed tactics and fixed him with his most intimidating stare.

Mac walked back to the locker and grabbed a clear plastic bag that had the few personal belongings he carried with him in the field.

Dr. Morgan wasn't fazed by the Delta operator. "Well, I don't know what happened, but take a good look at it because if it goes untreated, I figure you and your hand there are going to be parting ways in a week or so."

Mac froze at the doctor's words. He'd known the injury was serious but he didn't really think it was that bad.

For the first time since he and Mac had arrived back on the base, Jack seemed to take the injury seriously and he looked... scared. It was a look Mac had only seen a few times, a look which he hated to admit, he was usually the one responsible for. "You really think it's that bad? I mean, it hurts but I figured it would heal up in a week or so."

Mac opened the bag and pulled the metal shard out and held it up for Morgan to see. "This is what was sticking through Jack's wrist."

Jack didn't even bother to look, he was still reeling from what the doctor had said. He'd known their job was high risk and the chances of him being killed didn't scare him, it went with the job description. But, losing his hand... that was something different, he couldn't be a soldier with one hand, at least not in the roll he was trained for.

Morgan raised his brow at the size of the shard. He looked at Jack, knowing by the soldier's reaction that his message was getting through. Instead of letting up, he pressed. "So, what'll it be? You want to get shipped home where everybody can call you lefty or do you want me to fix that thing so Uncle Sam can send you back out to defend the ole red white and blue?"

Jack sighed and glanced at Mac's worried face, moving to the bed and sitting down, shoulders slumped, he looked at Morgan. "When can you take a look at it?"

Morgan pointed to Mac, "As soon as I'm finished with Mac here, I'll walk you down to x-ray, get a look at what we're dealing with."

Jack sighed, "Alright, any idea how long I'll be out of commission?"

Morgan gestured for Mac to sit in the chair, "I won't know until I get the x-rays. You got a name or you want me to keep calling you soldier?"

"Name's Jack." He didn't offer a last name, Morgan didn't seem to mind, tossing Mac's file on the bed and turning towards the young man.

He leaned over Mac, "Let me get a look at that back of yours." Mac leaned forward so Morgan could lift his shirt.

"You've still got quite a bit of bruising, but the wound is healing nicely. Any pain?" He asked still probing the wound.

"No," Mac answered quickly. "I feel good, ready to get out of here as you can see." He waved a hand at his attire.

"How's the leg? Any problems walking?" Morgan asked still leaned over Mac's back.

"No, I can walk just fine." He said over his shoulder, hoping the few steps he took earlier would be proof enough.

Jack had resigned himself to the fact that he was going to have to deal with his wrist, he shoved those thoughts to the background and concentrated on what the doctor was saying to Mac.

Morgan stood, having probed the wound site. He waved an arm at Mac's attire. "Well, Mac, I think you got a bit ahead of yourself, think we'll keep you here a bit longer."

Now it was Mac's turn to look dejected and annoyed as he slumped in the chair.

Jack, stood up, instantly alert, "What's the problem?"

Dr. Morgan leaned over and picked up Mac's file. He glanced at Jack and flipped a page, pulling his pen from his front pocket. "Your friend here has a good size bruise on his back caused by the impact of the projectile."

"It was a rock, and not that big of one" Mac added.

"Right, well that rock hit hard enough to cause the wound and bruise the outside of your back, thing we can't see is what it did to the inside. I want to make sure you didn't injure your kidney." Morgan scribbled something in Mac's file.

Jack craned his neck to see what it was but sat back quickly as Morgan glanced at him.

Sighing, Morgan set the folder down on the bed and crossed his arms. "Look fellas, the Army has trained you to be gung ho all the time and you think the war can't go on without you. Well, I'm here to tell you that's not the case.

He pointed at Jack's wrist. "You could go out and I imagine you think you'd be just fine shooting lefty right?"

Jack looked down at the floor, a move that told Morgan he was right on track.

He turned to Mac, "And you, I've seen all the things you've been doing in here to keep yourself occupied, and I imagine you think you're ready to get back out there and rid the countryside of IED's."

Mac and Jack shared a look.

"Well, let me tell you how that would end. I let you boys out of here and you go out. Right now, both of you are combat ineffective. You not only put yourselves at risk, and judging by your service record Mac, that is a very distinct possibility, but you put your teammates at risk."

Morgan watched their body language, knowing he'd hit a nerve as both men sat up straight ready to deny his accusation. He cut them off with a wave of his hand. "I used to be you. I was with the unit."

Jack's eyebrows raised and he looked the Doctor up and down, re-evaluating him.

Morgan knew the look. "That's right son, I was one of you badass, thought I could handle anything, thought the team couldn't do without me types." He tapped a finger to his temple, "I know how you think. So listen to me when I say, I would love to send you back out but I won't, because you're not ready." He looked Jack in the eye, "Especially you. Unless you have some other career path planned, I suggest you resign yourself to the fact, you may be out of commission for a while."

Jack was the first to speak. "Why'd you leave the unit? You seem like you're still in shape, what gives?"

Morgan swung his right leg and tapped it against the metal bed frame, it clanged with each tap. He lifted his pant leg revealing the metal prosthetic, he winked. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

Jack smirked, yeah, this guy definitely had his approval.

Morgan stood, picking Mac's file up off the bed. "Alright, enough about me, Mac, get comfortable, you're not going anywhere today. Jack, come with me. Let's go see how bad you screwed up your shooting hand." He held his arm out gesturing to Jack. "After you."

Jack looked at Mac in sympathy, he knew the younger man was ready to leave but who could argue with a doctor like Morgan. "I'll be back later bud."

Morgan harrumphed, "I wouldn't count on it. Mac, I'll come by later, let you know how it went."

"Thanks Doc, good luck Jack." Mac watched as Jack nervously walked out the door.

Morgan stopped in the doorway and turned to Mac. "Don't worry about your friend, he's not going to lose the hand, I suspect it's just broken. Probably end up with a cast, maybe a few stitches." He winked and tapped his temple. "Just have to know how these guys think, once you figure that out, you can get them to do just about anything they don't want to."

Mac smiled and laughed as Morgan walked out the door.

0-0-0

True to his word, Morgan returned several hours later. This time, wearing surgical scrubs.

"I see you didn't take my advice and get comfortable. You planning on going somewhere?"

Mac set the notebook down, "No, just finishing up a design I was working on, how's Jack?"

Morgan sat on the edge of the bed. "He'll be ok, there were fractures of the lunate and capitate bones" He indicated the area on his own wrist. "And some slight damage to a few tendons but overall, considering the size of that shard you've got, he's damn lucky it wasn't worse."

Some of the tension left Mac's shoulders, "Is he going to be ok? Any permanent damage?"

"He'll be able to return to duty in a while if that's what you're asking. We added a few small screws to reduce the fractures and the tendons weren't completely severed so they'll recover. He'll have some discomfort and develop arthritis eventually but overall, he'll be fine."

Mac was relieved, he had been sitting in his room unable to fully concentrate on what he was doing, looking up expectantly every time someone had walked by his door.

"Where is he? Did he go back to the barracks?" Mac wasn't sure if Jack was over the fact that he had essentially ratted him out to the doc when he showed him the metal shard.

"No, he's in recovery right now, I administered a mild sedative, didn't want him running off. We'll keep him overnight, probably cut him loose tomorrow morning." Morgan stood up, reached back and patted the bed. "Now, you young man, need to get out of those clothes and that chair and get back in this bed, or do I have to sedate you too?" He started for the door. "Dinner is coming around in a little while and after that, I want you to get some rest. Otherwise, I'm going to have to keep you here longer."

At that Mac started untying his boots. Morgan walked out the door, satisfied with himself. _All you have to do is know how they think_. He grinned.

To be continued...

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this.

This story is complete, just over 25k words. I just have to do a bit of editing and let Dlwells51 work her magic. There is a mission eventually and some action, but other than me just playing around with the guys, there's really no point to this other than me just having a bit of fun and playing with virtual army men. Fall can't get here fast enough, I'm definitely going through MacGyver withdrawals. ;-)

FF is giving me fits, saving anything over 4K words isn't working, so I have to split this up into smaller chapters. Ch. 2 & 3 will be coming along shortly.

-Gib-


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: As always thanks to Dlwells51 for making this better, and thank you for the kind reviews, favorites and follows. This thing is like a hot potato, I was going to wait to post chapter 2. Well, I'm like a kid at Christmas, I couldn't wait. So, here it is, hope you enjoy.

Warnings: None really, nothing but shenanigans ahead.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with the TV show MacGyver.

0-0-0

Normally Mac liked to eat fruit, but after three days, the sweet syrup filled cups of square chopped mixed fruit had become less of a treat and more of a needed distraction.

He drained the syrup in one swallow and shoved the mashed potatoes to the side of the oval dinner plate, dumping the fruit onto the empty space.

He had read through the stack of popular science magazines and had written letters to a few inventors, pointing out flaws in their designs, including with the letters, hand drawn schematics and designs with detailed solutions.

Mac picked each piece of fruit up, inspecting it then sorting them into piles based on type of fruit. After a moment he reconsidered and sorted according to shape and size. The half, or more accurately one-third halves of cherries had a space and category of their own. Pleased now with his decision, he continued his task.

This evening's fruit structure he had planned was going to be accessorized by peas that were as near to perfectly round as could be for overcooked, previously dehydrated and reconstituted peas could be.

Building materials sorted, Mac spooned a dollop of mashed potato on the plate and spread it to a perfectly flat one quarter inch thick layer.

Mac was concentrating so hard, he almost didn't hear the commotion in the hall.

It was the nurse at the desk that had alerted him with her shout of, _"You can't go in there, you need to leave your gear outside! I'm calling the MP's!"_

 _"Relax lady, our weapons are cleared and we left all the explosives in the truck,."_ Cooper's voice came to him from the hall.

Mac quickly hid the evidence of his latest project by stirring everything on the plate together, topping it off with the rest of the mashed potatoes. He leaned back and rested his hands behind his head.

"Yo! Mac! How's it hangin?" Cooper's dirt covered bulk filled the door briefly before he was shoved none too gently into the room.

Coop turned and glared at Duncan. "What the hell Dunc?"

"Dude, if you weren't takin up the whole damn door..."

"Stow it you two! Haven't you had enough fighting for one day?" Boxer glared at the two before smiling at Mac.

Mac's eyebrows raised at the grime covered, fully equipped trio and smiled. "You guys just got back I take it?" He looked expectantly at the door, waiting for Pete to complete the ensemble.

Boxer stepped up to the side of the bed, "Yep, just landed about twenty minutes ago, had to go round these jokers up and get them off that hill. He looked up and down Mac's form. "You look good, kid."

"Yeah, baby brother's been getting plenty of R and R," Coop unslung his rifle and set it in the corner.

Mac tensed and leaned out of the bed to look around Boxer towards the door then lay back, eyes shifting to each man. "Where's Pete?"

Boxer patted Mac on the shoulder in understanding, "Relax son, he's fine."

Coop snorted, "Ole Pete about had a stroke when he found out the boss skipped out on the doc when you guys landed. You shoulda seen him Mac. You know how he gets when he gets pissed, stomping all over the place." Coop started marching in circles swinging his arms in stride.

Mac smirked at the large man's impression of the much smaller team medic.

Duncan stood at the end of the bed, "Jack was awake when we got back, Pete's standing guard duty to make sure he stays there."

Mac relaxed, a half smile on his face. "I kept telling him he needed to get his wrist taken care of."

Cooper stood to the side of the bed grinning, he slapped Duncan's shoulder. "Probably had to drag his ass in there, you know how the boss gets around needles."

Mac laughed, shaking his head. He'd heard the guys tease Jack a few times about his aversion to needles.

Boxer scratched the stubble on his chin, "Ole Wyatt could give shots to cattle all day long when we were kids, even stitched up my arm once," he pointed to a faded scar and winked. "Of course we were doin stuff we weren't supposed to, but when it comes his turn... that ole boy turns to jelly. Never used to be that way, don't know what changed."

Duncan tapped Mac's foot, "Hey man, you gonna eat that?" Duncan nodded at Mac's plate.

"No, I mixed..." Mac didn't get to finish as Duncan snatched the plate and scooped a heaping spoonful into his mouth.

Duncan's face scrunched up as he set the plate on the tray and spun looking around the room, eyeing the garbage can, he rushed over and spat out the mouthful. "What in the hell are they feeding you?" He wiped a sleeve across his face adding another layer of dirt to an already grime streaked face.

Mac looked embarrassed, "It's uh, mix..." Cooper already had a spoonful in his mouth before Mac could finish.

Coop's face scrunched up. Duncan held the garbage can up from across the room. "See! I told you man, it's shit... here," he walked forward holding the can out.

Cooper shook his head determined and held a hand up as he swallowed. "What the... dude we've gotta get you outa here, that shit'll kill ya." Coop grabbed Mac's napkin and wiped his tongue. He leaned forward inspecting the pile, using the spoon to carefully scrape away the top layer of potato as if he were uncovering an IED. He looked at Mac, "What is that? A fuckin cherry?"

Mac swallowed in an attempt to keep from laughing.

Boxer rolled his eyes at his two companions. "Alright boys, time to bug out, MP's are almost here."

Coop stabbed the spoon into the mixture and retrieved his rifle.

Mac raised an eyebrow at Box, "How do you know?"

Boxer tapped the earpiece and grinned, "Got their coms son, never go into enemy territory without the proper intel." He winked and patted Mac's shoulder before making eye contact with the other operators.

Coop tapped Mac on his foot as he passed. "You take care baby brother, Doc says you're getting outa here tomorrow, one of us'll come and get ya."

Mac grinned, "Alright, see you guys, and thanks for coming by."

Duncan stopped at the door, "Don't worry Mac, we'll get you some proper food man, that shit's nasty."

Mac waved his hand, "Thanks Dunc, but you don't..." Coop shoved Duncan out the door. "...have to."

Mac chuckled as he heard his friends voices fade down the hall, _"What the hell Coop!"_

 _"Payback's a bitch ain't it."_

 _"Dude I can't believe you swallowed that."_

 _"Shut up man, you're just a pussy, it wasn't that bad."_

 _"Knock it off you two, how about a little noise discipline for once."_

Mac looked at the plate curiously. He reached forward scooping up a small spoonful. Holding it up, slowly bringing the concoction toward his tongue. He stopped millimeters away from completing the motion, setting the spoon back on the plate, letting his arm drop to the bed and sighed. "Jesus, I'm turning into them." He said to the empty room.

0-0-0

Mac had just finished twisting the wires together and was reaching for the plastic light cover. He froze when there was a loud knock and his door opened.

"What up! Du..." Jack stopped mid greeting, "what the hell are you doing?" Jack's eyebrows shot up as he looked at Mac standing frozen on the bed, the ceiling light cover in one hand and a handful of wires in the other.

Mac looked embarrassed and quickly replaced the light cover. "The light was humming, it was bugging me," he held up the wires, "so, I fixed it." Mac leaned down and sat on the edge of the bed. "How's the wrist?" He pointed at the off white fiberglass cast covering Jack's hand and forearm.

Jack held the cast up, wiggling his fingers before dropping his hand and leaning to the left. "Wrist is fine." Jack eyed the cast, "I tried to get black but they didn't have it." He reached into his left thigh pocket, "but hey, at least with the white one I can..." His tongue stuck to the side as he fished around in his pocket, finally straightening and pulling out a handful of colored sharpies. "Customize it!" Jack grinned throwing the pens on Mac's tray, he quickly walked around the bed and pulled the chair across the floor.

Mac spun his legs around to sit on the other side of the bed, cringing as the chair screeched on the floor.

"So, you my man, get to be the first to put your Herbie Hancock on this bad boy." Jack dropped his arm onto Mac's tray table with a loud thunk, a beaming smile on his face as he waggled his eyebrows.

"John Hancock, Jack. Herbie was a musician." Mac leaned over looking at the colored pens.

Jack gave a dismissive wave of his hand, "Whatever." He jerked his head toward the pens. "You wanna sign it or what?"

Mac smiled and picked up the dark green pen. "How much time do you have?"

Jack eyed him suspiciously, "Why, what are you gonna do?" He jerked his arm off the table. "Cuz I don't want no science geek shit I can't explain on this thing." He held his arm up.

Mac reached forward and grabbed Jack's cast. "Relax, you'll like it, it's just gonna take a bit."

Jack set the cast back on the table. "Alright, I got some time to kill anyway, we're not hitting the firing range for an hour or two."

Mac uncapped the green pen and leaned over Jack's arm turning his back to the older man as if he were keeping Jack from cheating off of a test. "You going to try to shoot with this thing on?"

Jack sat up trying to see what Mac was doing, "Nah, might shoot lefty, pistol only probably."

Mac didn't doubt Jack would figure out some way to make his situation work, as with the rest of Jack's men, the word can't wasn't in their vocabulary.

"Don't move, you'll mess it up." Mac set the green pen down, inching the cap on with one hand while blocking Jack's view.

He picked up the black pen, pointing it at Jack. "Pull the cap off will ya."

Jack did as requested and craned his neck trying to get a glimpse. "What're you makin?"

"It's a surprise." Mac grabbed the pile of pens and handed them to Jack. "Here, hold these will you?"

Jack grabbed the pens, "When are you getting outa here?"

"Some time today, have to wait for the doc to come by and sign me out." Mac answered, continuing to work on Jack's cast. "I'm ready to get out of here and back to work, this place is making me crazy."

Jack knew keeping Mac cooped up in a room was akin to solitary confinement for the kid and his big brain, he'd been doing his best to bring Mac things that might keep him occupied. "Hey man, I brought you all that stuff, you read all those magazines already?"

Mac let a small laugh escape, "Finished those in an hour."

Jack was surprised, he knew Mac read fast but having finished an entire stack of Popular Science in an hour? Even for Mac, that seemed a bit fast. "Seriously? What'd you do, skip the articles and just look at the pictures?" Jack waggled his eyebrows.

Mac stopped working on Jack's cast and looked over his shoulder at Jack. "No, I read the new stuff, some of the magazines were old, and I've read them already."

He turned back to the design he was working on, "How long do you have to wear the cast for? Doctor Morgan said he had to put a few screws in your wrist?"

Jack shrugged, "Not long, and yeah, got some new hardware to add to the collection. No big deal though, Doc says it's not anything that I have to get cleared through medical, that's a bitch man, let me tell ya."

Mac had known a few guys in EOD that had gotten injured bad enough to get sent back to the states because they couldn't get cleared through the medical evaluation and keep their MOS as an EOD tech. He hadn't even considered that when he had pressed Jack about getting his wrist checked out. "Is that why you didn't get this thing taken care of when we got back? You were afraid it would end your career with the unit?"

Jack sighed and took a second to get his thoughts in order. "Yeah, that might have been part of it I guess. Honestly dude, I didn't think it was that bad. Hurt like a mother but I figured it'd just heal on it's own you know." Jack smirked, "Hell, when I was in high school, I rodeo'ed for half my Junior year with a busted ankle."

Mac shook his head, "You do know, normal people don't do that kind of stuff right?"

Jack laughed, leaned forward and slapped Mac on the shoulder. "Mac, I've been called a lot of things in my day, normal hasn't been one of em."

Mac turned and gave Jack an annoyed look, held up the pen and gestured at the cast. "You want this to come out right or not? Stop moving around."

Jack rolled his eyes and sat back, careful to leave his arm perfectly still on the table. "And hey, I could say the same about you, Mr. oh I'm fine, it's just a scratch, nothin to worry about."

Mac shook his head slightly and chose not to comment, hoping Jack would just let it go.

Jack snorted, holding the pens out toward Mac, "Dude you are the quintessential poster child for understatement when it comes to your own health. I swear man, you see all these gray hairs I'm getting?" He pointed to his temple, hand full of pens, and continued to talk to the back of Mac's head. "Half of those are from you. You do know most EOD guys just show up and slap a little boom goo on the IED's, blow it up and call it a day. But not you, no, you've got to get up close and personal and try to disarm the damn things."

Jack watched as Mac's shoulders tightened. He knew he'd hit a nerve.

Mac remained silent, seeming to ignore Jack.

Instead of letting it go, Jack pressed. He had watched Mac disarm countless explosives that any other EOD guy would have chosen to blow in place. But Mac was different, he went after the devices like a dog with a bone and Jack genuinely wanted to know why this young college kid was so hell bent on putting himself at risk.

"You do know the D in EOD stands for disposal right? I mean they taught you that in bomb school didn't they?"

Mac lifted his head, "Yes, Jack, I know what the D stands for."

"Alright, so what gives? Why go to the trouble of disarming instead of disposing? You got a death wish or something? Cuz, I'm all for badass crazy, but you take it to a whole new level dude."

Mac stopped drawing and sat up, keeping his work blocked with his shoulder. "No Jack, I don't have a death wish and I only disarm the bombs that I know I can... safely."

Jack snorted and raised his eyebrows, "So, sitting out in the open with bullets flying is safe? That's what you're sayin?" The corner of his mouth turned up. "Me an you went to different schools on that one brother."

Mac leaned back over and continued the project. "Every bomb maker has a signature, whether they know it or not." He held his hand up and rubbed his fingers together, "The way they twist a wire, or the tool they use to strip the coating." He leaned back over, "If I can save those pieces, maybe if we come across a pattern, it would give us a place to start looking, especially if there's a village close by." He handed Jack the pen and grabbed another color.

Jack contemplated this new information and started to put two and two together. "Is that why you save those bits of wire? Cuz there's a pattern?"

Mac shrugged, "Some of them, if there's a new one yeah, others are just pieces of wire I keep for projects."

Jack sat up and leaned forward, "Well, you got anything? Patterns I mean?"

"Yeah, I've got a few, from before I started with you guys. Passed it up the chain but it didn't go any where as far as I know. We were told to just kept moving, keep clearing roads." Mac leaned back, eyeing his work. "Almost done." He grabbed another pen.

Jack knew how the regular Army worked and wasn't surprised that Mac's theory had fallen on deaf ears, it was a different time where it was less about prosecution and more about keeping the troops moving. He smiled, "Well, brother, it just so happens you know a group of guys that are willing to hear your theories now, and go do a bit of investigatin."

Mac looked up, eyebrows raised, "You can do that? What about the brass?"

Jack cocked his head, "Once you get outa here, we'll sit down and you can tell me exactly what you've got, you let me worry about the brass." Jack sat back, already running through his pre mission mental check list. Normally he and his men received their orders from on high. It would be a bit unusual for Jack to pitch the mission or at least the idea of one but he'd worry about that later.

Mac leaned back, admiring his art work. "What do you think?"

Jack leaned forward without moving his arm off the table and grinned. "Dude! That's badass man!" Jack dropped the pens on the bed and reached forward to run his hand over the drawing that took up the bulk of the inside of the forearm.

Mac slapped his hand away. "Don't touch it, it's not dry yet."

Jack pulled his arm close and inspected the image. "What's that in the middle? It's not a bomb."

Mac grabbed a pen, using the tip to point out the significance of each piece of the design.

"The wreath, lightning bolts, and oval are from my EOD insignia, normally I'd put the bomb with three fins here." Mac pointed to the center oval. "But, I figured you wanted something a little more... Delta." Mac smirked. "Since you guys don't have an actual insignia, I went with the dagger."

"That's awesome man, thanks dude." Jack pointed to the top of the insignia. "Love the reticle, you even got the mill dots right." Mac shrugged, "Again, I figured I'd swap the star and wreath for something more your style."

Jack looked at his watch and stood. "Damn right brother, listen, I gotta go, one of us'll be by to pick you up."

Mac shifted his eyes from Jack to the pens. "Thanks, I can't wait to get out of here."

Jack reached forward and picked up the black pen. "Keep the rest, I promised Boxer a spot but nobody else is getting a crack at this thing." Jack held up the cast. "Don't want to mess it up, it looks too good." He smiled, tapping Mac's foot as he walked by. "See ya in a while, don't go tearing anything else apart in this place while I'm gone."

"I can't promise anything," Mac smirked as Jack walked out the door.

He heard Jack talking to the nurse at the desk in the hall. _"Check out what my man Mac just did."_

Mac smiled and picked up the pens, his mind occupied with the thought of being able to go after the people that were planting IED's. That's what he had come here for, to save lives... make a difference. If they could track down some of these bomb makers, it wouldn't put a stop to the war but it might just save a few guys.

To be continued...

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, follows, favorites. As always, a huge thanks to Dlwells51, she's got a hand in this big time, despite what she says. ;-D

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with the TV show MacGyver. If I did, it'd be on all year round.

0-0-0

Mac sat on the ground outside of the med unit, back resting against the wall. He'd been released over an hour ago and was still waiting for a ride. Jack had said they'd come pick him up. In all the time he'd known Jack, he had always kept his word, so Mac waited.

Helicopters had come and gone, some with wounded, others landing and taking off with no known purpose. Mac hadn't ever really paid attention to the happenings of the base. He was always busy working on something or other. Now that he had nothing to do but wait, he watched as convoys of trucks came and went, soldiers walked by, some with a swiftness as if they were late for an appointment, others who milled about, almost wandering.

Mac watched as a soldier threw a football high in the air only to come down into a group of young men clamoring for position trying to catch the pigskin when he heard the roar of a fast approaching vehicle.

Mac snorted as he saw Pete driving the hummer like he was in the Daytona 500. Soldiers were running out of the way as the vehicle sped toward the med unit, yelling and flipping him off as he passed.

Mac ducked his head as Pete brought the vehicle to a skidding stop, kicking up a cloud of dust and gravel. Pete jumped out, not bothering to turn the truck off.

He was wearing cut off shorts, half tied combat boots and a faded red t-shirt with a barely visible 99 on the front.

Pete ran around the front of the truck and skidded to a stop in front of Mac. "Hey man, sorry I'm late, we had a bit of a situation."

Mac was instantly on his feet, all humor replaced with concern. "What happened?"

Pete grabbed Mac's folder and headed to the passenger side door.

"Nothin much, just had a little op go sideways, took a little longer than we expected s'all." Pete opened the door bowing to Mac. "Your chariot awaits."

Mac climbed in and watched as Pete ran around to the driver's side.

Once he got in, he put the truck in gear and slammed his foot down on the accelerator, sending gravel and dust flying behind the vehicle.

"What op?" Mac watched the road, grabbing the hand holds as Pete steered around an oncoming truck.

"What?" Pete yelled over the roar of the engine.

"What op went sideways? And what happened." Mac yelled in return.

Pete turned his head toward Mac, seeming to forget he was supposed to be watching the road and grinned. "Nothin to worry about, we heard the Rangers got a new air conditioning unit."

Mac shook his head. "Let me guess, you guys tried to steal it."

Pete turned his attention back to the road and slowed to a more reasonable speed, easing Mac's nerves. "No way man, we don't steal." Pete smirked, "We were going to do a straight swap, ours for theirs."

Mac's raised his eyebrows, "Did the Rangers happen to _know_ about this straight swap?"

"We didn't really get a chance to tell 'em." Pete slapped the steering wheel and laughed, "So, we're sittin outside, got most of the bolts undone and getting ready to pull it outa the wall. How were we supposed to know it was hard wired to the generator?"

Mac snorted and shook his head. "Where'd you think the power came from?"

Pete scowled, "Dude, the Army taught us how to field strip and use any weapon system out there, they didn't teach us squat about electricity."

Mac shook his head, "So, what happened, you get the air conditioner?"

Pete slowed and turned towards the barracks. "No, we didn't get it, damn Rangers were coming back, we had to escape and evade. Ours is back where it belongs, but I think we might have screwed it up. Man, Jack's gonna be pissed." Pete looked at Mac, realization on his face, "Dude! you totally have to fix it before the boss gets back!"

Mac grinned, it always amazed him how this group of highly trained extremely dangerous men could go from deadly to dumbass in the blink of an eye. "I'll take a look at it but I'm not promising anything. Where's Jack and how much time do I have?"

Pete pulled up to the barracks and shut the engine off. "He was at the range earlier, said he had something he needed to take care of over at the TOC. I don't know how much time you've got, he could be back any minute."

Mac climbed out, grabbed his file and bag and headed inside.

0-0-0

Three hours later, the barracks had finally cooled off enough that the guys had come back in. Pete was in his bunk talking to his wife via messenger, letting a string of colorful language escape like clockwork every time the wifi connection was lost.

Coop and Dunc were playing Black Ops on the x-box. Even though they were seated next to each other, they still communicated as if they were on a real mission. _"Contact right! Frag out! Cover, I'm moving, gonna get to higher ground. Go!"_

Mac smiled as another string of expletives come from Pete down the hall. _"You fuckers are stealing all the bandwidth! Give the damn game a rest for a few will ya! Probably getting your asses kicked by some twelve year old anyway!"_

Mac leaned over the table, inspecting each wire for telltale signs and sorting them accordingly. He'd identified at least six different styles and still had a pile of wires to go through.

He looked up as the door opened and Boxer walked in. The older man smiled at Mac and eyed the pile of wires. "You starting another project there Mac?"

Mac stood, stretching his back, "No, well, kind of, but it's not a sculpture or anything. I was talking to Jack earlier today and..."

Boxer interrupted him, "Yeah, I saw him earlier, said you think you can identify the bomb makers by a pattern or something?"

Mac leaned over and picked up a short piece of blue wire and walked over to the wall map. "Yeah, sort of. This wire right here, I took this off of an IED that was in a culvert near this village here." He pointed to a small pin he'd placed on the map. "I've got four more wires just like it, all from different IED's that were placed here, here, here and here." He indicated more pins.

Boxer scrutinized the map then took the wire from Mac's hand inspecting it. "No offense Mac, but how do you know this wire came from _that_ IED?" He turned to the table, sweeping his hand in an arc. "You've got a lot of wires there with no labels."

Mac took the piece of wire back, stepped to the table and placed it in one of the piles. "I know exactly where every single one of these came from." He said defensively.

Boxer stepped back, hands raised, "Relax son, I didn't mean to rile ya, just askin. Doesn't matter anyway, Wyatt's been over in the TOC getting us permission to chase down your theory anyway."

Mac's surprise was evident as Boxer smiled and clapped him on the back. "Haven't seen Jack put this much work in a mission request in a while, whatever you said to the ole boy musta been good."

Mac dipped his head, picking up a wire he looked back up at Boxer. "All I told him was I can see patterns in the wires, that's it."

"Well, last I saw him he had an arm full of maps and files, said he'd be back in a while and not to wait up." Boxer clapped Mac on the shoulder and walked behind him studying the map for a second before turning his attention to the video game. "You guys are gonna get flanked if you don't strengthen that right side."

"Give it a rest Box, we're in the shit right now man, Coops outa ammo, all we got left is a damn grenade." Duncan replied, ducking as if he were really being shot at.

Boxer scratched his beard, "Unbelievable, what'd you do, blow all your ammo going in guns blazing? Who's on overwatch?"

"Son of a bitch!" Coop slapped Duncan on the shoulder. "Dude, we just got our asses kicked man, what the hell? Where _were_ you on that last door?"

"Shut up man, I killed like forty of those guys, didn't see you going all out when we hit that building." Duncan stood, throwing the controller in his chair. "I need some air."

Coop sat, arms hanging at his sides, staring at the screen. "I hate this damn game." He looked up at Boxer. "What's the good word man, we got another op or what?"

Box sat down in the chair Dunc had vacated and pointed at Mac. "Wyatt's over at the TOC right now working on something the kid's got."

Duncan looked toward Mac who was bent over the table inspecting wires, seemingly unaware of the conversation that was taking place not more than ten feet away. "Mac's got something?" Coop crinkled his brow, "Kid's been cooped up in Med, how the hell he come up with anything?"

Boxer shrugged, "Hell if I know, Jack's working on something, guess we'll find out soon enough." He held up the controller, "So, how the hell you play this thing?"

0-0-0

Mac had finished sorting the wires and marking the locations of the IED's he'd disarmed.

The guys had all gone to bed, telling Mac he should get some sleep, but he couldn't, not until Jack got back. That was two hours ago.

Boxer had said Jack was working on Mac's theory but he hadn't even gotten a chance to talk to Jack since that morning. He had no idea what it was Jack could be doing. Mac sat in the chair, staring at the map, studying the terrain, known locations of villages, in relation to his pin patterns, trying to figure out where he would even begin to look for suspected bomb makers.

Mac had been going at this project for most of the night and despite doctor's orders, he hadn't really slept that well while he was in the infirmary. The longer he waited, the harder it was to keep his eyes open until finally he succumbed and drifted off to sleep.

0-0-0

Jack was exhausted, he'd been flying from one base to the other all over the damn country, getting the higher ups to buy off on his proposal. He'd never admit it but he'd rather be in a firefight with nothing but a pistol than have to deal with the top brass. Politics was never one of his strong suits.

Seemed the higher up an officer got, the more they worried about their careers than getting the job done. Of course, they hadn't agreed to let Jack and his men go out and do their thing quietly, no. Everybody had to have a hand in the game, despite Jack's protests.

So, what was originally supposed to be a low key mission had turned into a full blown Operation.

Jack yanked the barracks door open, trying unsuccessfully to wipe some of the dust and sand off of his uniform as he stepped in.

The first thing he saw was the wall map with all the pins, the second was Mac's sleeping form sprawled in the chair. Jack shook his head as he studied the map, "Should've sent the damn kid to talk to the brass." He mumbled to himself.

Jack set his rifle down on the table, careful not to disturb the small piles of wires. As he was removing his pack, he heard Mac stir. The corner of his mouth turned up as he watched Mac slowly wake up, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Hey man, anybody ever tell you it ain't healthy to sleep like that?"

Mac sat up, still trying to get his bearings. He looked at his watch, noting the time. "You just getting in?"

Jack sighed, walking over to one of the chairs he flopped down letting his head fall back. "Yeah, seems the Army really takes dotting the T's and crossing the I's seriously."

Mac snorted. "I think you got that backwards."

Jack waved him off, "Whatever, you know what I mean."

"What have you been doing and where have you been for the last..." Mac ckecked his watch again, "... twelve hours?"

Jack stared at the ceiling, seeming to melt into the chair. "I have been talking myself hoarse convincing the powers that be to let us go out and start tracking down the guys that are planting IEDs like it was damn corn."

Mac sat up a little straighter in his chair. "What did they say?"

Jack turned his head toward Mac, cracking an eye open. "They're all for it."

Mac sat up straighter, his excitement evident. Jack held up a held his cast up fingers splayed. "But, instead of just us going out all nice and quiet like, they're turning this into a full blown operation, and right now, where we're going doesn't have anything to do with that art project you've got going on over there." Jack pointed at the wall map and slapped Mac on the thigh, "Mac, you are now the initiator of Operation Clean Sweep."

Mac's mouth opened and shut, not knowing exactly what to say as he watched Jack stand up, joints popping as he stretched.

Jack looked at his watch, "I'm gonna hit the rack, try and catch an hour or two." He pointed at Mac, "You should probably try to get some shut eye too, sleeping in that chair don't count. I gotta be over at the TOC at 0500, see ya in the morning man."

"Good night Jack." Mac said with a half wave.

To be continued...

A/N: Hope you enjoyed, I don't mean any disrespect to any officer or member of the Army, they have my utmost respect, especially today. In this particular chapter, I kind of went against that a bit. And it's just coincidence this particular story happens to be done right now. With my work schedule, holidays, three day weekends etc., don't really mean anything. Any day of the week can be my Monday or Friday so to speak. Except Fridays during the Fall of course. I know exactly when Friday rolls around. :-)

-Gib-


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, FF is giving me fits right now, the chapter update notifications aren't going out and the update date isn't being revised. Anybody have any idea?

Anyway, I figured I'd get this up and let it sit for a while, see if this update works right. Maybe it's a glitch on FF's end and it'll be fixed eventually, or it's on my end. If that's the case, I'm totally screwed because I have no idea what to do. ;-) As always, a huge thanks to Dlwells51 for proofing my stuff and making it better.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with the show.

0-0-0

Mac woke early, unable to stop the images of every IED he'd disarmed from running through his head. He lay in his bunk listening to the squeak of the air conditioner and the thump of helicopter rotors as they flew by. Rolling out of his rack, he reached over to the small table and grabbed his shaving kit and towel. Mac ran a hand through his hair as he slipped on his flip flops and headed into the hall.

"Morning Mac," Duncan greeted from behind him in the dim hallway.

"Morning Dunc." Mac kept moving toward the door, getting out of Duncan's way in the shoulder width hallway.

Mac glanced at the wall map before stepping outside into the early dawn.

Duncan stood behind him and stretched, "Gotta love it when it's already ninety degrees at six in the morning, I swear, why anybody would want to live in a place like this is beyond me." He slapped Mac on the shoulder, "Care to go take a run? I'm gonna get a few miles in before Box and Jack get back."

Mac smiled and looked at his feet, wiggling his toes. "Maybe next time Dunc. Had a late night, I'm gonna hit the shower and grab a bite to eat."

"Alright man, I'll see ya when I get back." Duncan slung his rifle over his shoulder, waved and took off at a jog.

0-0-0

When Mac stepped out of the mess hall, he was instantly assaulted by the intense heat reflecting off of the surface. It was definitely going to be a hot one today. If he had to guess, it was probably going to be over 110 degrees.

He watched as a matte black helicopter flew overhead. There were no markings but Mac could tell by the large round optics above the rotors it was a Kiowa reconnaissance helicopter. While it wasn't unusual for helicopters to come and go from the base, Mac couldn't remember ever seeing a Kiowa land at the FOB.

His curiosity getting the better of him, he headed toward the pad.

By the time he reached the Heli base portion of the FOB, the rotors were already shutting down.

Mac looked around and it seemed the Kiowa had gained an audience. Soldiers were standing in what little shade they could find, off in the distance. Mac watched as shoulder slaps and pointing fingers seemed to be the order of the day. Mac looked toward the TOC, guessing that whoever had flown in was more than likely headed that way.

Mac squinted, he saw two men walking toward the TOC with the pilots. Even though they were in full combat gear, Mac would recognize Jack and Boxer anywhere.

Mac jogged toward the TOC. He knew he couldn't get in without one of Jack's men accompanying him but he planned on meeting Jack outside when he got done doing whatever it was they were working on. _Should have brought some water_ he thought, as he neared the front entrance.

Luckily he didn't have to wait long as Boxer stepped out. His surprise at seeing Mac was evident on his face. "You getting psychic kid? I was just comin to get ya."

Mac's brow furrowed, he shook his head. "Um, no, I was just coming from the mess," he thumbed over his shoulder. "What are you and Jack doing flying in _that_ thing?"

Boxer stepped next to Mac and put an arm around his shoulder pulling him toward the door. "We've been sweating our asses off doing a bit of recon, that's what. Come on kid, think you can explain to us regular Army folk your theory about those wires?"

Mac tried to pull out of the big man's grasp, "Yeah, but my maps and wires are back at the barracks."

Boxer's hold tightened. "Relax, just a brief explanation is all we need then you can head back to the hooch, let the guys know they need to knock off whatever they're doing and get some quality downtime."

0-0-0

Later that evening, Jack returned from the mission brief and gathered his men. "Alright boys, we got us a bit of work to do here. Seems lettin the brass chew on this a bit has brought them to their senses."

Jack looked up and smiled at Mac, "So, we'll be breaking away from the main element of Operation Clean Sweep and running our own little op over here off of AH71." Jack pointed to the road indicated on the map. Mac knew the road, it was where he had placed most of the pins in the wall map indicating IEDs he'd disarmed.

"Clean sweep is going to start tomorrow morning. Mac, your EOD buddies are sweeping the road from the junction of AH1 and 71 moving south on 71, through the district of Monar." Jack traced the route with the tip of his pencil, "Two squads of EOD, lead is a Staff Sgt. Seagrave." Jack looked at Mac to see if the name registered. Mac shrugged his shoulders in answer to Jack's silent inquiry.

Jack looked at his notes and continued, "Seagrave's callsign is Buffalo, they've got the Talon robot in the second vehicle."

"The second squad of EOD will follow, standard equipment, call sign Cheetah. They've got three squads of infantry tailing for security, callsign Charlie.

Jack smiled, "This is where we come in. We got us a regular ole bird hunt going on here." Jack pointed to two grid squares on his map.

"We'll insert here," Jack pointed to a small mark on the map. "We need to get up and over this ridge and get set before first light. There's no real easy way to insert closer without waking somebody up, so from our recon flight this morning, Box and I figured this would be our best route."

Coop studied the terrain, "Looks pretty steep, how much time we got?"

Jack leaned over the map, resting his elbows on the table. For the first time during the briefing, Mac noticed Jack's cast was missing and shot a look at the older man.

Jack saw the look but chose to ignore it, continuing with the mission brief. "We're going in 0300, set up in these hills here, between grid 41RNR and 41RMR. Once the sweep starts, we figure anybody that gets wind of the convoy comin will either rabbit or try to get ahead of the convoy and start plantin IEDs. Either way, we're gonna be perched on top of em." Jack tapped Mac's shoulder, "Mac, if we spot anybody planting anything, your job is to try and identify if it's a pressure plate or remote det device." Jack pointed at Mac, "And absolutely no getting up close and personal with this stuff, we've got a nice spotting scope you get to use from a long way away."

Mac's eyebrows raised, "What if it's a remote detonation set-up? Those guys will be rolling right into a trap?"

Jack shook his head, "No, we're not gonna let that happen. If it's a pressure plate, we'll leave it and pass the info onto Buffalo, they'll use the Talon to try and save it... or, blow it in place." Jack held his hand up before Mac could protest. "It's their call, you're just the eyes on this one. If we see anybody running wires back to some damn hidey hole, Coop, you and Dunc are my shooters, take the s.o.b. out, then we'll leapfrog until we find good cover, regroup and reset. Box and I have marked out locations in these hills here, where we should have decent cover." Jack handed out sheet sized high resolution maps.

"Damn, straight." Coop fist bumped Duncan.

Jack watched Mac, picking up on his less than enthused body language. "Look Mac, if they stick with the pressure plates, hopefully we can follow the guys that planted them back to the rat's nest. Maybe even find some of the guys responsible for that pile of wires you've been hanging onto."

Duncan leaned in to study the map, "What's our ROE?"

Jack looked at each of the men, "Our rules of engagement are fire when fired upon or if we're under imminent threat, and take out anyone setting a remote det device if we can see it. Other than that, we want to be as stealth as possible. Clean Sweep is slated to go for a while. EOD is planning on doing sweeps every day, same area. If it proves to be productive on our end, we can expect to be doin more of the same."

"We staying out the whole time, or coming back in?" Pete asked, mentally calculating the amount of water and supplies each man might need to bring.

"We're staying out for the duration, bring your jammies, might be a long couple a nights. We'll get a supply drop at night if needed but the less aircraft in the area after EOD leaves, the better." Jack smiled at the group, "Don't want to scare our little bombers off too soon."

"If Buffalo or Charlie come under fire?" Coop asked.

"They're big boys, they can handle it. They'll have little birds and Apaches on station or close by depending on what else is going on in the area."

Jack pointed to a penciled in line on the map. "We're gonna be sandwiched between your regular old Taliban and the Haqqani Network, so we can expect something to pop. If it really hits the fan and Charlie needs help, then we'll scrap the sweep and join the party." Jack paused letting the information sink in. "Make no mistake fellas, we're going to be covering a lot of ground and this area should definitely be considered hostile so pack heavy and bring your hikin boots." Jack slid the maps off the table, "Alright boys, get your gear squared away. Gear check in sixty, we'll do a few walk throughs out by the range."

Everyone headed toward their bunk to gather their gear, send a message home, pray or whatever their pre mission routine had become.

0-0-0

Mac stood at the table in silence watching Jack fold the maps, sending his best laser stare toward the operator.

Jack simply ignored him going about his own pre mission routine. Finally Mac couldn't take it any longer. "What happened to the cast Jack?"

Jack tilted his head looking sideways at Mac while he stuffed the map in his pants pocket and sighed. "I got it cut off, don't worry though, I saved the design."

Mac threw his hands in the air, "I don't care about the design Jack!" He pointed at Jack's wrist, "Didn't you hear anything Doctor Morgan said? You shouldn't be going out if you can't do your job, remember?"

Jack fixed Mac with a glare, "I can do my damn job Mac, what the hell do you think I've been doing for the past day and a half? Part of my damn job, that's what. Besides, who do you think cut the damn thing off?"

Mac was taken aback at this new information, "Morgan cut it off?"

Jack nodded his head, "Yeah, Morgan! Without giving any exact mission details, I told him what we had planned, he said as long as I wasn't sitting behind a sniper rifle, I'd be fine."

Mac couldn't decide if Jack was telling the truth or not. "He said that? Really Jack, because last time I talked to him he said you'd be out for a while. _Two days_ is not a while."

Jack's anger subsided, replaced with a weariness that came from going from one mission planning session to the other. "Look, Morgan knows the business, knows how we operate." Jack reached in his pocket and pulled out a vial, small syringe and a small bottle of super glue along with a roll of black tape. "Gave me this stuff, said I could get Pete to give me a shot." Jack pointed to the middle of his wrist between two short rows of sutures, "Right here. If the stitches don't hold, use the super glue and said I should wrap my wrist with the tape." Jack pocketed the items. "So, got it covered." Jack turned and walked down the hall, leaving a speechless Mac standing in the makeshift Tac room. "Go get your gear squared away Mac, and stop worrying. I can still shoot the hairs off a gnat's ass from a hundred yards out." Jack yelled from down the hall.

0-0-0

After they had packed their gear, the team met at the range and walked through the initial stages of the mission. No matter how many times they had done it, one of the things they practiced was fast roping off of the helicopter. Each man in full gear stood in the same relative position they would be if they were actually in the helicopter instead of standing on the ground.

Jack gave the signal for them to deploy the ropes, each man moved, muscle memory taking over as they simulated deploying the imaginary ropes. Coop, Duncan and Boxer would go out the left side while Pete, Mac and Jack would go out the right, in that order.

They walked to where they would come down on the rope, each man taking a position, crouched weapon raised so that their field of fire covered 360 degrees. Mac was supposed to crouch behind Pete until Jack landed. Once he was on the ground, everyone ducked, protecting their faces from the sandstorm that would be produced from the rotor wash as the helicopter left the area.

Without a word, they tapped the shoulder of the man in front and spread out keeping weapons up, checking the area for any sign of human activity. Moving silently forward toward their objective. The entire deployment took less than thirty seconds.

They practiced the scenario over and over again until it became automatic.

After they had run through the deployment a dozen times until it was flawless, the scenario was changed.

Jack called it the aw shit segment, Boxer called it Murphy's Law. Each scenario had it's own challenge starting from no big deal graduating to deep shit.

A rope failure where everyone had to go out the same side was no big deal. A guy slipping off the rope and falling, considered a monkey wrench. Despite Mac's protests, he was always the one they used as the patient. Their reasoning was that Mac was the lightest of the group and since it was practice, they didn't want to wear themselves out too much. Mac figured it was because no one wanted to be strapped down to a board, carried over the uneven terrain and deposited on the ground unable to move while waiting for the imaginary medevac.

The last scenario was the deep shit scenario. A simulated helicopter crash.

They reviewed the coms plan in the event only one person was conscious they could call for support, where the fuel shut off was on the Blackhawk, how many weapons systems were available and last but not least, how to blow the entire thing up if it looked like the crash site would be over run.

The entire practice session lasted for more than two hours. Each man grilled the other with mission specifics, until everyone had every piece of information, tactic, escape routes, and contingencies committed to memory.

They hadn't even left the base and they had already accumulated so much sweat, dirt and grime, if anyone saw them they would have thought the group of men had been out in the field for days.

"Alright, everybody get your gear off, cool down, grab some chow, hydrate." Jack checked his watch, "We're wheels up in an hour."

To be continued...

A/N: hope you enjoyed, this chapter felt a little choppy to me but I honestly, it's been written and rewritten so many times, I decided to just go with it. I'm not sure if Jack is Ooc or not, I've been playing with him a bit. Anyway, hopefully FF posts this and refreshes the update date. Keeping my fingers crossed. Chapter 5 will be up tomorrow sometime, regardless of what FF does.

-Gib-


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thank you for your reviews, you guys are cool and I'm happy you're enjoying the story. A couple of shout out's to take care of... As always, a huge thanks to Dlwells51 for taking care of all my punctuation and grammar. Going so far as to try and educate me on the proper capitalization when using quotes and offering up different word selections. It's an "Old dogs, new tricks." kind of thing with me. ;-) She's a trooper, and I'm a bit lazy.

I would also like to send a huge thanks out to AZGirl. She informs me, (and I'm paraphrasing) that the reason a story doesn't show up as being updated is because I posted multiple chapters within 24 hours. Apparently FF doesn't like that. So, as I suspected, my issues were operator error on my part. Thank you AZGirl, you saved multiple electronic devices from serious damage by sharing the 24 hour rule. My iPad and district computer thank you. :-)

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything having to do with the TV show MacGyver.

0-0-0

The flight took forty five minutes and much to everyone's relief, the deployment went off without a hitch.

As they silently made their way up the hillside, Jack whispered over the coms for everyone to stop and take five.

Jack moved to each man, checking in with them to see if there were any issues he should be aware of. Mac watched him move silently through the small group until it was his turn.

Jack dropped to a knee in front of Mac and laid his rifle across his leg, flexing his fingers. "You doin alright? No blisters, rolled ankles, sprained knees?" He whispered.

Mac pointed at Jack's hand resting on top of the rifle, "No, I'm fine, how's the wrist?"

Jack held up his own camelback mouth piece, "You drinking plenty of water?"

Mac rolled his eyes, and held up his own hose. "Yes Jack, I am drinking plenty of water." He reached toward Jack's hand, "How is your wrist?" He emphasized each word making sure the question was heard this time.

Much to Mac's chagrin, Jack pulled his hand back and stood, keying his radio as he walked away, _"Alright, break time's over, let's get movin. Pete, you're on point, Box, bring up the rear."_

Mac stood, adjusted his pack and hurried to catch up with Jack. There was no way he was going to let the older man get away with avoiding the question.

Jack heard Mac coming from behind and stopped. _"Hold one."_ He transmitted and turned toward Mac. "What?"

Mac had been determined to catch up with Jack but now that he had, he recognized Jack was in full on Delta mode and not in the best of moods. To be honest, Mac was a bit intimidated by the glare that was directed toward him at the moment and he briefly thought about letting it go.

 _"What do you have boss, see something?"_ Boxer inquired over the coms.

 _"Negative, stand by."_ Jack responded obviously irritated.

"You got something to say, spit it out so we can get movin." Jack turned away from Mac checking the terrain in front of them, as Coop stepped up behind Mac.

"What's up, everything ok?" Coop asked looking from Mac to Jack.

Jack's jaw flexed in frustration. "Everything's fine, get back in formation, we'll be moving in a minute."

Mac steeled his nerves and stood taller, not wanting to let Jack know he was the least bit intimidated. "You didn't answer my question, how's the wrist?" He asked genuinely concerned. Mac would be the first to admit he didn't always follow Doctor's orders and had on several occasions gone on missions when he was less than one hundred percent. But this was different, it wasn't him that was dealing with the discomfort, it was his friend and he wanted to know if there was anything he could do to help.

Overhearing the conversation as he walked away, Coop transmitted to the group, _"Florence Nightingale is checking on the boss."_

Jack stepped closer to Mac, so he was eye to eye with him, overhearing Coop's transmission only served to increase the team leader's foul mood. "My fucking wrist hurts, is that what you wanted to hear?" Jack waved a hand across the terrain, "But, as you can see, we're already out here, so there's nothing to do about it at the moment. If you don't mind, I'd like to get to our positions before the damn sun comes up if that's alright with you... Private." Without waiting for a response, Jack turned and walked away. _"Alright Pete get us up this mountain."_ As an afterthought, he turned and sent a glare toward Coop. _"Everybody keep your damn intervals and keep the radio chatter to mission specifics."_

Mac still a bit stunned at the encounter, was left standing on the side of the mountain. He'd been around Jack long enough to know he wasn't really mad at _him_ , Jack had a tendency to become very short tempered when was hurting, and Mac knew Jack's wrist had to be bothering him. He refused to take any pain medication because of the mission, and fast roping out of a helicopter wearing full gear put a strain on even the healthiest person's wrists.

Coop slapped him on the back as he passed. "Way to go Einstein, you really showed him." The larger man smiled, "This is gonna be fun." he said with trepidation.

Mac started walking, making a mental note to have Pete check on his friend once they got to their objective.

0-0-0

As the team reached the top of the ridge, they could see several pinpoint sets of lights moving off in the distance. Dropping to the prone position, everyone but Mac was using the optics on their rifles to get the lay of the land. Mac looked through the spotting scope.

"That's highway one there," Jack whispered indicating the headlights, the final hike up the mountain seemed to have quelled Jack's mood, he was back to being his regular commanding self. "Box, you and Coop, get set up in this area, Pete, you and Dunc head further down the ridge, get set just above the middle of that small village to the East, let me know when you're set, fallback is here, unless something changes." A series of head nods and "Rogers" followed. "Mac and I are going to get set up mid slope in that little wash, should give us a clear view of the area. Sound off if you see any movement along 71." Jack stood and started diagonally down the hill as everyone moved to their positions.

0-0-0

Jack stopped, and whispered to Mac pointing down the hill. "See that bunch of rocks there, that's where we're headed. Looked good from the air, just watch your step the last hundred feet or so, looked to be pretty loose."

Mac nodded his understanding, and they continued down the hill.

 _"Six this is one, we're in position, have good cover, good visual."_ Pete reported.

Jack keyed his radio as they walked, _"Six copies, break. Two, you set?"_

 _"Affirm, two's got good cover, good visual."_ Boxer acknowledged.

 _"Six is still movin, will be set in five mikes."_ Jack informed the rest of the unit, it was slow going on the loose rock, trying to maintain stealth and keep from slipping down the hill was taxing to say the least. By the time he and Mac reached the spot Jack had picked out, both men were breathing hard.

Jack sat with his back against the hill, he brought his rifle up and scanned the area. Satisfied there was nobody in the area except for his men, Jack set the rifle across his lap, leaned back and tried to relax for a few minutes. _"Six is in position, good cover, good visual."_

Seated next to Jack, Mac undid his pack and retrieved the spotting scope. Leaning back against the hill, he used his knees and elbows as a makeshift tripod as he scanned the area with the scope. "Doesn't look like anything's going on down there, I don't see any movement in that little village to the east either. he whispered.

"Probably won't for a while, other than those vehicles over on highway one, we're the only sorry s.o.b.'s in the area that are awake." Jack shuffled his shoulders trying to get his pack adjusted against the hill.

Mac adjusted his position to look across the valley toward highway one. The headlights were still visible, still pin points of light that stood out in the darkness like beacons. Even with the spotting scope, Mac couldn't tell what kind of vehicles they were, they were too far away. What he could tell though was that the vehicles weren't moving. Mac looked up trying to make sure what he was seeing through the scope was what was really happening with his own eyes. "Hey Jack?"

Jack had been watching the hillside and listening to the sounds of the night. Even though Mac whispered, to Jack's ears it sounded as if he'd shouted his name. "Dude, keep your voice down, what's up?"

Mac looked back through the scope. "Those headlights aren't moving."

Jack became more alert and leaned forward to look at what Mac was talking about. He lifted his rifle and looked through the optics, but couldn't make out any detail.

Jack set the rifle down and was reaching for the push to talk button attached to his vest when Mac whispered, "They're moving."

Jack brought his rifle up and confirmed what Mac was seeing. "Alright, I'm gonna get a heading on that spot they were stopped at, keep an eye on em."

"They're not driving very fast," Mac whispered adjusting his position behind the scope.

Jack pushed the rifle to his back as he moved forward behind a large boulder. Removing the lensatic compass from his vest, he opened the cover, inserting his right thumb through the thumb loop index finger along the side. Jack pulled the compass to his chin, hand placed as if he were shooting a pistol. He lined up the luminous sighting dots with the spot and took a reading, then folded the compass and placed it back in his vest.

"They're stopping again," Mac whispered excitedly. Jack pulled the compass back out along with his note pad and map. He quickly wrote down the first azimuth and took a reading on the current location of the vehicles. "Got it, I'm gonna call this in."

 _"One, this is six."_

 _"One, go."_

 _"Get eyes on PCH,"_ Jack used the common abbreviation for highway one along the west coast of the U.S. in case anyone had somehow cracked their encrypted communications. _"Got a couple of slow movers, I'm gonna check in with Eagles Nest, see if we have any friendlies comin by."_

 _"Good copy,"_ Pete answered.

Mac looked up from the scope, _"You're going to call the TOC?"_

Jack set the compass on the ground and left the notepad on his knee. "Yeah, Eagles Nest can find out if we've got any friendlies in the area, no sense in us chasing our own tails all night if those guys are ours."

Mac settled behind the scope and continued to watch the vehicles.

Jack pulled out a small pen light, hunched over and guarded the map with his upper body as he quickly turned the small red light on and marked the coordinates. He wrote both sets of coordinates down on his notepad and changed the channel on his radio.

Mac listened to Jack's end of the conversation.

 _"Eagles Nest, this is three-six, how copy?"_

 _"I've got two stop and go vehicles on PCH, we have any friendlies near seven one and PCH?"_

 _"Copy, stand by for coordinates, if they're not ours, tell Buffalo and Cheetah to inspect and report in the a.m._

Jack paused, "What're they doing Mac?"

"They haven't moved yet... hang on, looks like... yeah, they're moving. They should be coming up to the intersection of 1 and 71 pretty soon."

Jack relayed the coordinates to the TOC and leaned forward squinting, watching the headlights while waiting for an answer.

Jack leaned back, listening to the radio. _"Good copy, we'll keep eyes on and relay updated coordinates, 3-6 out."_

Jack sighed as Mac looked at him expectantly. "They said we have no friendlies in the area at this time."

Jack relayed the information to Pete and Boxer, then settled back against the hill.

"Keep an eye on em Mac, lemme know if they stop again. Should be gettin light here in a few hours, don't think these guys are gonna stick around too long."

Ten minutes later, Mac was still glued to the scope trying to get as much detail as possible in the darkness.

"They're coming down 71, wish I had a night scope," Mac mumbled from his prone position.

Jack raised his rifle and looked through the optics. "Wouldn't do any good, at this range there's no depth, and less detail." Jack lowered the rifle to his lap. "Besides, Box and Coop are running night sights, if there's anything to see, they'll let us know."

Mac dipped his head and rubbed his eyes before peering through the scope again.

The move didn't go unnoticed by Jack. "Here, lemme have that thing for a bit, give your eyes a rest."

Mac didn't move from behind the spotting scope. "It's ok, I'm fine."

Jack shook his head and leaned forward tapping Mac on the shoulder. "It wasn't a request, hand it over. You look too long through that thing and the only thing you'll see when you close your eyes is the scope readings." Jack nudged Mac with his boot, "Come on, take ten, then I promise you can have it back."

Mac reluctantly handed the scope to Jack then pulled out his binoculars to watch the vehicles.

Jack looked down at the helmeted head and rolled his eyes. He settled himself into the hillside and propped his elbows on his knees looking through the scope. "I swear Mac, you are the most stubborn soldier I have ever met, man, I bet your drill sergeant just loved you in boot camp."

Mac didn't look up but smiled, "Pot, Kettle..."

Ten minutes later, Jack was still looking through the scope. "Looks like they're stopping again, just before that first little village."

Mac hadn't moved and was still peering through the binoculars. "Yeah, I see it, can you tell what side of the road they're on?"

"Looks like our side, it's hard to tell, I got a rooftop in the way."

Mac rolled to his right, holding out his hand. "Here, lemme have the scope back, I think I can figure it out."

Jack had learned not to question Mac when he said he could figure something out, and handed the scope over, he watched Mac as he settled back behind the scope.

 _"One, two, this is six. Either of you got good eyes on our party crashers?"_

 _"One has good eyes on, looks like they're taking a stroll, they keep going we'll loose them in the neighborhood."_ Pete answered from the sniper position he and Duncan had set up to the northeast on top of the ridge.

 _"Two, got anything?"_ Jack asked.

Boxer and Cooper had set up on the ridge west of Jack and Mac's position, _"Six, that's a negative on one's visitors, we've got something moving from the west, lost visual, think they may be below the rise."_

Jack shifted to look to the west along highway 71. "We got a regular rush hour going on here."

 _"One stay on the neighborhood, Two, lemme know when you get eyes on."_

Both sniper teams acknowledged Jack's orders.

"Well Mac, what do you think?"

"They're definitely on our side of the road, can't tell what they're doing but the lights are still on so... hang on, they're moving." Mac's feet shifted as he raised himself up a little higher on his elbows.

Pete's transmission confirmed what Mac was seeing.

Jack's eyes shifted from the east where Mac and Pete were watching the original two vehicles to the west when Boxer reported they had a visual on two more vehicles that had just crested the rise.

"Mine are stopping again, one's a small pick up, the other is some kind of old van," Mac whispered. "Got two, make that five guys getting out."

Jack lifted his rifle, the truck and van had come close enough, in the moonlight, Jack could make out the people with some detail. _"One, you still tracking?"_

 _"Affirm, no shot, bad angle, you want us to adjust?"_

 _"Negative, stay put, contact Eagles nest, give them the location of that last stop, I've got visual."_ Jack pulled his compass out and took a quick reading, committing it to memory and leveling his rifle. "Mac what's the range on the truck?"

Mac shifted the scope slightly right, "Twelve hundred meters." He shifted back to the people outside of the vehicle, "Jack, they're definitely planting IED's, but I can't tell exactly what kind from here, if I could get closer..."

Jack interrupted Mac, "Absolutely not, you are staying put, we'll mark the coordinates and pass it on to Buffalo and Cheetah."

Mac let out a frustrated puff of air, Jack knew Mac was just itching to go down there and disarm the explosives, something Jack still couldn't wrap his head around. It wasn't that he didn't like explosives, he _was_ a guy after all, everyone likes to blow stuff up. But, when it came to dealing with devices built by the bad guys... he wanted to be as far away from the unknown as possible.

 _"Six, two's got eyes on five pedestrians, jay walkin, two bus drivers, planting some serious fireworks by the looks of it."_ Jack could hear the excitement in Boxer's quiet transmission.

 _"Copy, get a reading and send it to Eagles nest. How big are we talkin?"_ Jack kept his rifle trained on the truck while he looked up toward Boxer's target. The two vehicles were still too far away for him to see anything in detail.

 _"Looks like enough to make razor blades out of a freakin tank."_ Boxer replied.

Jack could hear the excitement in everyone's voices. It wasn't that they were nervous, it was the desire to do something other than sit and watch the enemy essentially have the run of the place, doing whatever they wanted while he and his men did nothing.

Jack had the same desire to go down there and take the men out but he had to keep the bigger objective as their number one priority. It was one of the things that was made perfectly clear to him in several of the mission briefs.

 _"Jack, you and your boys are going to want to get into the mix and I am all for being proactive but you and your hard chargers need to sit back, and be our eyes. So, unless it's absolutely necessary, I don't want you to get in the mix, understood?"_ Colonel Nelson had been one of the few officers that had been instrumental in getting Jack and his men separated from the main element and in the area Mac's map had shown to be a hotbed of IED patterns. Jack did a bit of bargaining of his own and the rules of engagement while not ideal, ended up being a lot more to Jack's liking than the original plan that had them completely handcuffed.

Jack keyed his mic, _"Listen up, I understand this isn't our normal gig, but keep the objective in mind. If these are just worker bees, we want to follow them back to the hive."_ Jack looked at Mac, "Everybody just take a breath, we're in this for the long haul."

 _"West is on the move, I've got what looks to be a VW van and a p.o.s. panel truck, movin fast, must be outa deliveries."_ Boxer reported.

 _"Copy, keep eyes on, if they go out of range, pass em off to One."_ Jack watched as the pick up and van Mac hadn't taken his eyes off of started to move. Before Mac could say anything, Jack whispered, "I see em, let's see if our commuters know each other." As dawn was breaking, the opposing vehicles got closer to each other slowing until finally coming to a stop, side by side. "Yep, think our delivery boys definitely know each other." Jack said thinking out loud.

Mac peered through the scope, he could see the bearded faces of the men. "Jack, these guys have planted at least five IED's that we know of, what if they're the only ones that are in the area, what's that going to do for your bee hive theory?" Mac watched as a few of the men leaned against the hood of the pick up, others hugging one another in greeting.

Mac had voiced what Jack was already thinking, _"One, you see any movement in the village?"_

 _"Negative, all's quiet except for a couple of roosters, we need to move, if you want us to help break up that little party going on below you."_ Pete answered.

 _"Copy, keep the high ground and come on over, but keep your distance, stick with the long gun, don't want to give away all our positions... break, Two, lose the scope, you've got the hood ornaments,"_ Jack quietly ordered. At this range, there wasn't any need for Boxer to spot for Coop, and adding Boxer's rifle to the mix raised their chances of success.

 _"One, you've got the bus driver and any runners."_ Jack carefully inched forward closer to the boulders he and Mac were using as cover, at this distance, even the slightest noise above a whisper might alert the insurgents below. _"Everyone hold, right now we're outside the ROE, One, call Eagle, let em know the situation, ask for new ROE."_ Jack heard Coop acknowledge and switched channels. Jack didn't want to risk having a long conversation with the TOC from his position, didn't mean he couldn't listen in though.

The conversation went as Jack suspected, the TOC officer in charge had to check with the officer in charge of the entire operation who in turn had to check with his boss. Jack hadn't personally met the man but if Colonel Nelson's opinion of his counterpart was less than complimentary, the chances of getting their rules of engagement changed on the fly were somewhere between never and when hell freezes over.

Mac had switched his radio and listened to the conversation, when the request was denied, his body tensed, he wanted to get on the radio and explain that these men they had been watching all night long were quite possibly responsible for an unknown number of past IED attacks as well as the possibility the explosives they had most recently set could be remote detonation.

Mac looked up at Jack, even with the short beard covering the older man's face, Mac could see Jack's jaw muscles clench. If it were humanly possible, the laser stare Jack was sending toward the insurgents could have burnt a hole clean to the earths core.

0-0-0

Shortly after the request to engage had been denied, the men had gotten in their vehicles and left the scene, all four vehicles heading back toward the villages.

As soon as the vehicles had left, Mac rolled over and leaned his back against the rocks. "What the hell Jack? We could have quite possibly just let the entire group of people responsible for most of the stuff I have mapped in this area go."

Jack slowly leaned back against the hill, jaw still set, he lay the rifle across his lap and flexed his right hand. "Give it a rest Mac, Seagrave and his bunch should be in the area pretty soon, how about you get back on the scope, now that we've got some daylight, see if you can spot any wires near all the pit stops."

Mac took a calming breath and wiped his face, he was about to get back on the scope when he heard Jack's quick intake of breath. When he looked up, Jack had his eyes squeezed shut and cradling his hand. "What happened? You ok?"

Jack held up his left index finger, a silent message that he wasn't ready to talk at that particular moment. Mac waited and saw some of the tension start to leave Jack's body.

Jack let out the breath he was holding. "It's alright, just forgot about this damn thing," he lifted his right hand slightly held in his left's firm grip. "Tried to push off the ground, I got a damn rock under my ass that feels like a freakin boulder." Jack smiled, trying to lighten the mood but his painful grimace sabotaged the effort.

Mac pointed up the hill to where he thought Pete and Coop were at. "You should call Pete, get him down here to give you a shot, whatever Morgan did has to have worn off by now."

Jack opened a pouch on his vest and pulled out a small pre-loaded syringe. "No, I got this, I'm sending Pete and Coop back to their original position." He pointed toward the road, "Get back on the scope, it'd be nice if we could give Buffalo and Cheetah a heads up on what they might be dealing with."

Jack held the syringe in his teeth as he slowly started to unwrap his wrist. Mac sat behind the scope glancing sideways at Jack monitoring his progress. With the still healing wound exposed, Jack reached into a vest pocket, he removed a small pack and set it in his lap. Mac couldn't concentrate on the scope while Jack fumbled with the pack one handed. It was both irritating and frustrating watching the inefficiency. Finally unable to just sit and watch, Mac sighed and held out his hand. "Jack, give me the pack, at this rate, the war will be over before you finish whatever it is you're trying to do gets done."

Jack's eyes narrowed as he looked at the offered hand. He finally relented and with an eye roll he handed Mac the pack but stubbornly held onto the syringe.

Mac opened the pack and looked at Jack expectantly. "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Grab the super glue, popped a stitch or two, looks like." Jack held his wrist out for Mac to see.

Mac lightly grabbed Jack's hand turning it over to inspect the underside of his wrist. "This might hurt a bit, should I give you the shot first?"

Jack looked down at the syringe in his hand. "Yeah, I guess, just rub right here with the alcohol prep." Jack used the capped syringe to point out the location.

Mac opened the prep and swiped Jack's wrist. He held his hand out for the syringe.

Jack's eyes shifted from his wrist to the syringe and back again.

"Just give me the syringe Jack."

Jack ground his teeth, finally handing it over.

Mac pulled the cap off with his teeth and aimed the needle towards Jack's wrist. "The whole thing?" He looked up to see Jack had his head turned away, face scrunched, eyes squeezed shut. "Yeah."

Mac let a small laugh escape as he inserted the needle and pushed the plunger. "All done, you can look now."

Jack cracked an eye open and slowly turned his head toward Mac. When he saw Mac had really finished, the nervousness left his face and was replaced by the look Mac was used to seeing on the soldier. All business, task oriented.

Mac finished with the superglue and rewrapped Jack's wrist. "How's that feel?"

Jack flexed his fingers and brought his rifle up to test the appendage. "Feels good, thanks man."

Mac handed the small pouch of medical supplies back to Jack, "You're welcome, I'd give you a lollipop or a sticker if I had one, you were so brave getting that shot, just like a big boy." Mac couldn't resist teasing.

"Hardy har har, you just get your skinny butt back behind that scope before I decide to ship your ass back to the base, doesn't take a genius to spot wires." Jack's tone belaying the empty threat.

"Mac smirked and settled behind the scope. "You know, for someone that's had a piece of metal sticking through his wrist, been shot at, blown up, and whatever else that goes along with the scars I've seen, I can't believe you're still afraid of needles."

"Yeah, well, had a few bad experiences with needles I guess." There was no emotion in the the statement as Jack shifted lifting his rifle to scan the area. It was a move Mac knew Jack used to indicate he was done talking.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Pete's voice came through their ear pieces.

 _"Six, this is one, our party crashers from last night have come home to roost. Got a visual on em in the village to the east."_

 _"Copy, keep an eye on em, pass it on to Eagle's Nest."_ Jack looked at his watch, _"Buffalo and company should be coming up on our freq anytime now."_

As if in cue, Seagrave's scratchy transmission came through, _"Three-six, Buffalo, how copy?"_

 _"Buffalo, Six, scratchy but good copy, over."_

 _"Six, we're Oscar mike, should be on station shortly, hear you had a busy night."_

 _"Buffalo, that's affirmative, did Eagle pass on the coordinates of the party favors and where our friends are now?"_

 _"Affirm, based on your info, our element has grown a bit, added ANA's and got a guy says he knows you, they're attached to Charlie."_

Jack shook his head and looked at Mac. "Gotta be Briggs, that s.o.b. Better not screw this up, or I swear, I'll shoot him myself."

Mac knew Jack wouldn't really shoot the man... at least he didn't think he would. Instead of adding fuel to the fire, Mac continued to scan the area without comment. When he stopped in the spot Box and Coop had said was possibly a large IED, he saw what he'd been looking for. "Jack, I got wires going from a disturbance in the soil down the side of the road. Can't tell where they go but I'd bet this is a remote set up of sorts."

Jack shifted to see what Mac was looking at. _"Two, that big spot you guys watched last night, Kid says remote. Keep eyes on, anybody comes close that looks like they want to start pushing buttons, you're free to fire."_

 _"Two copies, kid got anything else?"_

Jack was about to answer when a large explosion was heard off in the distance. "Shit, think that came from highway one."

To be continued...

A/N: Well, finally, the mission starts. Hope you enjoyed, I played pretty fast and loose with the communications in this one and pretty much the rest of the story. So, just go with it. Let me know what you think. Anybody Ooc? Mission making sense, directions of where everybody is at clear? You know, all that jazz.

Chapter 6 will be up tomorrow.

-Gib-


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you very much for all the reviews, I appreciate it. As always thank you to my awesome second pair of eyes, Dlwells51 who, after quite a bit of me hounding her has a few stories of her own in the works. So, keep an eye out, they're great.

WynonaRose made the helpful suggestion that I put the definition of the acronyms at the end, so I'm going to take her helpful advice and do just that. Thank you WR.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything having to do with the tv show MacGyver.

Mac was going to shift the scope to that direction but he didn't need to, the large black column of smoke could be seen with the naked eye. "That was really big Jack, if it's our guys..." Mac didn't need to finish, they'd all been around enough explosions to know whatever had happened if anyone was near, they were more than likely dead.

Everyone listened as the radio came to life. _"IED, IED, IED, Buffalo is down."_

Thirty seconds later, the distant boom of another explosion was heard. "Son of a bitch!" Jack said watching the second column of black smoke. "They just got hit again. _"Pete, you still got eyes on our bad guys? They doing anything?"_ Jack asked, discarding the call signs and cryptic transmissions."

 _"I got one vehicle on the move, the van, headed toward Buffalo's position, looks like one driver."_ Pete answered.

They heard the second IED transmission, Cheetah was down.

"Well, this mission just went to shit, both our EOD elements are down." Jack said quickly before hitting the transmit button. _"Charlie, Charlie, this is Three-Six how copy? Over."_

Jack waited a few seconds for a response, when none came, he tried one more time with the same result. _"Pete, Dunc, you got a shot on that van?"_

 _"Affirm, on the vehicle for another ten seconds, negative on the driver."_ Duncan answered.

Without hesitation, Jack gave the order, _"Take the van out, Box, Coop, cover Pete and Dunc."_

Mac looked at Jack, as the report of Duncan's shots were heard in the distance. "You thinking suicide bomber?"

Jack raised his rifle, watching, waiting for the van to stop. It was too far away from their position for his rifle to be of any use. "That's what I'm thinking, hope it's not some poor bastard just going to the market or something."

After a few seconds had passed Duncan's rifle went silent. _"Put ten rounds in it, it's out of range and still moving Boss, couldn't hit anything but the back panel."_ Pete reported.

Jack cursed and keyed his mic. _"Pete, Dunc, watch your ass, somebody in those villages might have your position, change freq's and see if you can get Charlie or their air support on the horn, let em know that van is headed their way and we suspect a VBIED."_ Jack nudged Mac with his elbow, "Get ready to move if the shit hits the fan."

Mac knew they were in a tight spot, they were too far away to help what was left of the EOD element, and they didn't have any support at the moment if their own positions were compromised. "What're you thinking Jack?"

"I'm thinkin this mission is scrubbed, and what's left of Buffalo better have somebody on security if that van gets close, that's what I'm thinkin." Jack switched channels and pointed toward the villages. "Mac, keep an eye on those buildings, watch for the bad guys, I'm gonna call the TOC."

Jack contacted the tactical operations center and let them know the situation. Mac heard the one sided conversation and knew Jack wasn't happy with the information he was receiving from the other end by Jack's swearing between transmissions. Once the conversation was over, Jack's swearing didn't end. "Dammit, unfucking believable," Jack took a breath then keyed his radio. _"Alright boys, just got word from Eagle, seems Buffalo, Cheetah and half of Charlie are down, the remainder of Charlie is holding security, air is en route, two minutes out from Buffalo's position, ROE says air can't take out the van without a confirmation it's a legit VBIED. We're holding here until dark, can't risk a daylight evac, we'd probably lose the bird. Pete, Dunc, if you're in the clear, start making your way toward Box's position, everybody got it?"_

The two sniper teams acknowledged the transmission, _"Charlie never answered Boss, tried all the freq's, I can hear them but they're not picking us up, that van should be there any second now."_ Pete added.

Mac closed his eyes, willing whoever was left of Charlie to recognize the threat and take it out before anymore lives were lost.

Two seconds later the third explosion of the day reverberated through the air. _"Man I hope they took that guy out before he got there."_ Coop transmitted what everybody was thinking.

Mac watched the smoke columns and whispered to Jack, "Judging by the distance between columns, I'd say they did, unless the rest of Charlie was moving forward. That van blew well in front of where Buffalo was hit."

Pete followed Coops transmission, _"Boss, got movement coming our way, that little pick up from last night, got a truck full of guys with what looks like AK's and RPG's, we're sittin tight, at your eight o'clock, think they're looking for us."_

Jack ducked lower behind the boulders, rifle at the ready just above the large rock. _"Coop? Got em?"_

 _"Affirm, I'm counting nine, two in front, seven in back, movin slow."_

Jack had no doubt he and his men could take them out but it would mean engaging in a firefight, which, for all intents and purposes would give away the rest of their positions. _"Alright, everybody stay cool, we could take them but there's no telling how many friends they might have and we're on our own here until tonight."_

Mac slowly raised his head, just enough to see but not be seen. Finding what he was looking for, Mac crouched behind the boulders. "Jack, I have an idea but it has to happen pretty soon."

Jack didn't move, he was keeping the truck in his sights. "Whaddya got?"

"If Coop can hit that IED just before the spot where they stopped last night, it might take them out."

Without hesitation, Jack pressed the transmit button keeping his rifle trained on the truck. _"Coop, the kid has a plan, stand by."_

"Alright Mac, let him know what you need."

Mac peeked over the boulder, _"Coop, I want you to shoot at the explosives they planted last night just to the east of where the vehicles stopped to meet. But you need to hit it as close to the detonator as possible."_

A second later Boxer answered. _"Alright Mac, we're on the location, what're we supposed to be looking for?"_

Mac answered the spotter, knowing Coop could hear, _"Box, you're going to have to put him right on the side of the road, there's a disturbance, but you're going to have to fire a round and then I can get you zeroed in, ready when you are, they're in range right n..."_

Mac saw the puff of dirt before he could finish. _"Six inches right!"_

The explosion drowned out the report of Coop's second shot, it was a perfect hit and had the desired effect, the vehicle had been close enough to the explosion to flip it on its side. Unfortunately for the Delta operators, not everyone in the back was killed.

Jack rapid fired his transmission, _"I got movement, Pete, keep eyes on the village, Coop, you got everybody to the right of the truck, I got everybody else."_

Mac watched as Jack and Coop's shots hit their marks, one round at a time.

Even though Jack's rifle was quieter than the average M4, Pete's voice still sounded muffled after the shooting ended. _"Got two more vehicles comin, loaded for bear, think they want to know what happened to their buddies, we've got a shot on the driver of the rear truck."_

Jack shifted his position to get a better angle on the two pick-ups. _"Hold tight until they get a bit closer, I'm still outa range, Coop, you got the driver of the front truck?"_

 _"Affirm."_

 _"Alright, these jokers are gonna stop when they get close to their buddies, before they have a chance to get out and figure out their buddies didn't just blow themselves up, we gotta hit em. Box, you call it. Break, Pete get on the horn, get us some air support. Should be far enough away from the villages for a gunship."_

Boxer answered first. _"You got it Bubba, but keep your damn head down. You and Mac are gonna be right on top of em."_

Pete acknowledged with a simple, _"On it, trying to get an Apache from Charlie."_

 _"I don't care where it comes from just get it."_ Jack knew they were taking a risk but as soon as it was discovered the first group of insurgents had been shot, the rest of their friends would be scouring the hills. Better to be proactive than reactive he figured. "Mac, keep checking that village, these guys might already know we're here, they just cant figure out where we are, don't want anybody sneaking up on us, but keep your head down."

Mac shifted position trying to get a good angle on the village. Jack was on his left and trying to see around the operator wasn't an option from his current position. "I need to..."

The rest of his sentence was cut off when he heard Boxer over the radio and the gunfire started.

Instead of the previous engagement where Jack fired single shots at the stunned insurgents, Jack was firing in three round bursts, shifting from target to target.

Mac belly crawled behind Jack glancing toward the road before coming to a stop when he heard the telltale zing of a round going over his head. Mac didn't need a scope to see more vehicles and motorcycles coming from the village.

Jack ducked dropped the spent magazine and inserted a new one, sitting back up he continued to fire, the men in the trucks had scattered and had decent cover behind their vehicles.

"Jack! There are more coming!" Mac pulled the scope out and scanned the road looking for the IED that was still intact between the guys in the trucks and the caravan of newcomers.

When he found what he was looking for, he shuffled backwards and scrambled to Jack's right side. He was about to tell Jack what he was thinking when Jack let off another three round burst. Mac tried to duck as the spent shell casings flew toward him. Unfortunately he wasn't fast enough and the hot brass found its way under his collar, one lodging between his skin and vest. Mac dropped down suddenly trying to reach down the collar of his shirt to make the burning stop.

Jack saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, he stopped firing and leaned over Mac, worry evident on his face. "Where are you hit?"

Mac kept searching finally getting ahold of one of the shells. "I'm not hit!" He pulled out the spent case showing Jack.

Jack, satisfied with explanation, moved to keep firing. Mac grabbed his sleeve understanding Jack needed to get back in the fight but he wanted to tell Jack about the IED and didn't want to get peppered with spent casings again.

Jack fired a burst and quickly leaned down toward Mac. "What?"

Mac pointed in the direction of the villages, "there's more coming and there's still a charge buried between these guys and the guys that are coming. A grenade would set it off, I can't see the detonator so a bullet probably wouldn't work."

Jack sat up and fired another burst, quickly ducking back down as rounds whizzed by. "Point it out to me, and keep your damn head down."

Mac scrambled half on the ground, half across Jack's back. He pointed toward the IED, see that boulder a hundred meters out?"

Jack leaned his head over sighting down Mac's arm. "Yeah, I got it."

Mac shifted his hand while Jack studied the terrain. "It's about thirty meters past that. At this rate we've got maybe two minutes to get there, give me one of your grenades." Mac held his hand out.

Jack reached back with his left shoving Mac down as he sat up straighter and fired another burst, holding the rifle without really aiming, he looked at Mac, "we got two guys left down there, playing whack a mole, there's no way in hell you're going out there, stay put."

Jack twisted and sat with his back against the boulders. _"Coop, Dunc, when I take off, these fuckers are gonna pop their heads up. Don't miss boys, I'm gonna run down the hill to the east, take care of our new visitors. Pete get on the horn, get our evac moved up, we're buggin out."_

"Jack, I should go, you can cover me." Mac pleaded, it _was_ his idea after all. "You probably can't throw with your wrist anyways."

Jack dropped the spent clip quickly replacing it. He smiled and winked at Mac, "You just watch me." Jack stood up and fired on full auto toward the trucks. As soon as the magazine was empty, he took off at a run, replacing the spent clip on the move.

"Dammit Jack! Mac watched as the men behind the trucks hesitated for a split second before they started firing toward Jack, bullets kicking up rocks and dirt.

Jack twisted and fell as Mac heard the report of Coop and Duncan's rifles, so close together they sounded like a single shot.

Mac didn't bother looking to see if they had hit their mark, he was already running toward Jack, watching as Jack scrambled to his feet and began running down the hill toward the oncoming vehicles.

Mac had always been a fast runner and quickly caught up with the Delta operator.

"Jack, give me the grenade!" Mac yelled as he ran alongside, glancing at the oncoming vehicles, watching as the men pointed toward him and Jack. He spared a quick glance back to Jack, looking for any visible wounds, while holding his hand out and trying to keep his footing on the uneven slope.

Jack grit his teeth, holding a grenade out toward Mac. Jack had never run track but he thought the handoff would have made any Olympic relay team proud. Mac took the explosive and started to pull away from Jack.

Not wanting to be out done, and not wanting Mac to be out in the open without fire support, Jack raised his rifle and pulled out another grenade as he tried to catch up to Mac.

Mac slowed to set his feet before throwing his grenade. He wanted to time it just right so the maximum number of vehicles would be caught in the blast.

Jack slid to a stop beside him as Mac pulled the pin, mentally calculated the distance, fuse and the speed of the vehicles and let it fly. Before it hit the ground, Jack quickly handed him another. "Here, just in case."

Mac pulled the pin and threw the second. Jack stood admiring the arc until Mac grabbed his vest and pulled. "Get down!"

A half a heartbeat later, the first grenade exploded followed a split second later by an ear splitting boom. Mac instantly knew this IED had been at least three times the size of the first one. If it had been bigger, he and Jack may have been caught in the shock wave. As it was, small rocks rained down on the pair, when the rocks stopped, both men slowly stood up.

Pete's voice crackled over the radio. _"You guys alright?"_

Mac looked toward the road. Several of the vehicles were on fire, the motorcycles had been either destroyed or were laying on their side.

Jack quickly brought his rifle up and headed toward the carnage, keying his mic, _"Yeah, that was a helluva big bang."_

 _"Apache will be on station in one mike,"_ Pete paused for a beat, _"Eagle says we're good to go if we're clear, mission's scrubbed."_

Mac caught movement toward the rear of the trail of vehicles.

Jack had seen it too as he brought his rifle to bear on the figure. The smoke cleared, blown away by the northerly wind. _"Got movement, stand by."_

Jack had the figure in his sights, but didn't pull the trigger. _"It's a freakin kid, man, can't be mor'n fifteen. No visible weapons."_ Jack lowered his rifle, "Your lucky day kid." He said quietly. "Hey Mac, that last big remote set-up Coop and Box spotted last night, think a couple of rounds would set it off?"

Mac surveyed the damage he had caused. It was obvious no one had survived. No one, but the kid he thought turning back toward Jack. "Yeah, it should, why?"

Jack watched as the young man walked toward one of the downed motorcycles. He bent over and reached for something Jack couldn't see. Jack quickly brought his rifle up and moved forward. Once again, he had the young man in his sights, finger putting slight pressure on the trigger.

Mac's heart raced, he knew if the teenager picked up a weapon he was as good as dead. Jack couldn't miss from this distance.

"It's a damn camera," Jack turned toward Mac, "Did we just fry a bunch of bird watchers or tourists or something?" Jack knew the men he'd killed didn't have the best intentions but setting off the IED before the insurgents had a chance to fire a single shot had put the smallest doubt in the operator's mind. What if these men and that kid were just coming to help after the first explosion.

Mac surveyed the damage once more. Recognizing Jack's worry, he placed a hand on Jack's back and pointed to an area in the middle of the wreckage. Don't think you have anything to worry about, those metal plates are all over the place... those are what they use for pressure switches and that popping... that's ammo cooking off.

Jack's relief was evident as he turned his attention back to the teenager. The kid had righted a moped and had it started. "Little s.o.b. probably brought the camera to shoot pictures of us gettin killed."

The teenager started to drive away but stopped suddenly. He shifted sideways on the seat and pointed the camera toward the two soldiers as the Apache helicopter made a quick pass overhead.

Jack raised his rifle with one hand pointing it toward the kid and flipped him off with the other. "Go tell all your buddies we're coming for em you little bastard!" Jack yelled then keyed his radio. _"Pete, tell the Apache to steer clear for a few, then stay on station and cover our rear."_ Jack started up the mountain, Mac in tow. _"Coop, throw a couple of rounds at that spot they planted the big one you saw last night, we're makin our way back up to your position, for exfil."_

 _"Apache is clear."_ Pete's transmission was followed by an even larger explosion than the last.

"Coop didn't wait too long on that one did he?" Jack grinned and slapped Mac on the back. "Let's get our butts up and over this damn mountain so we can go home."

0-0-0

By the time Mac and Jack had reached the top, their exfil helicopter was five minutes out. "Alright boys, let's get down to the LZ, don't want to be late for our taxi."

Boxer walked beside Jack and slapped him on the back, causing the operator to wince at the sudden jolt. "Boy you shoulda seen you two running down that hill from where we were at," he waved a hand back towards the ridge, "How'd you let the kid beat ya Wyatt, you gettin old on us?"

Coop walked behind Mac and laid his large hands on the younger man's shoulders giving them a squeeze. "Nah, Box, baby brother here's a freakin gazelle, ain't that right?" He pulled Mac back like a rag doll, holding the smaller man up to keep him from losing his footing. Mac looked over his shoulder to see the large man wink as he was released from the grip.

Jack sidestepped down the hill, looking back toward the ridge checking to make sure no one was following. "Actually, If I'da known you bunch of chuckle heads were gonna let my ass get shot, I'da come up with a different plan." He pulled a full clip from his vest. "You sorry excuses for snipers let those bastards tag me with a damn round." Jack held up the dented magazine. "Lucky for you, I didn't need this, or there woulda been hell to pay."

Duncan, who had been covering the rear, turned looking back toward Jack as they moved down the hill, "Sorry about that boss, my guy had a pretty good hidin spot, took a couple rounds to get him.

Pete shouldered past Mac quickly catching up to Jack, reaching for Jack's vest, "You ok, sure nothing got through?"

Jack slapped the medic's hand away, "Dude, I'm good, no holes, nothing's busted."

When Mac had watched Jack fall, his heart had raced. He thought the older man had been hit. When he'd gotten closer and Jack was up and running again intending to throw the grenade, Mac figured Jack had simply tripped, but now, his worry was back. Jack seemed ok and had said as much but Mac knew Jack had a way of making even the most serious of wounds sound like a paper cut.

When they'd first met, Mac was impressed, even in awe of Jack and his men. They'd seemed super human, continuing on regardless of injury or discomfort. Now, especially when it came to Jack, he was more frustrated, even irritated at the older man for going out on missions when Mac knew he was hurting. Especially on missions that Jack had admitted could be handled without him by his very capable team.

Mac sped his pace intending on catching up with Jack when a Blackhawk roared over the top of the ridge and swooped down low enough everyone ducked as it passed.

Jack yelled over the sound of the rotors to the group, "Alright boys, double time it to the LZ, this dude seems to be in a bit of a hurry."

0-0-0

Even though they were essentially running down hill, by the time they made it to the helicopter, everyone was breathing hard. They piled into the crew compartment, Jack being the last one on board. Before his foot left the ground, the pilot pulled pitch and they were on their way.

Jack clipped the tether line onto his belt and let his feet hang out the door of the helicopter, he removed his helmet and motioned to the door gunner to hand him the spare headset. Taking his cue, Boxer and Coop grabbed headsets of their own.

As he was sliding the headset on, Jack watched as Mac leaned close to Pete. They were discussing something and based on their body language and Mac's finger pointing toward him, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he was the topic of discussion. Jack shot an annoyed glare toward the pair before turning to watch terrain go by, the pilots were pushing max speed.

Jack pushed the button on the side of the headset, _"Thanks for picking us up, but where's the fire, you boys got a hot date or something?"_

 _"You could say that, sir. We got pulled out of the evac rotation for a bunch of EOD guys that got hit by IED's and a car bomb to come and get you guys. We still got some room so we're headed back."_

Jack shared a knowing look with Box and Coop. They knew exactly where they were headed. _"Any idea on number of casualties?"_

 _"No sir, sounded like quite a few injured though. You guys are gonna have company back there in a few, no nonstop flights today."_

Jack spared a glance around the cabin. He and his men were still able bodied and armed, the slight head nods he got from Box and Coop confirmed they were thinking the same thing. He made eye contact with Box and nodded toward Mac and Pete.

Boxer leaned toward the Medic pulling one side of the headset off as he spoke, informing them of the change of plan.

Jack turned toward the cockpit to look out the front windscreen as he spoke to the pilots over the headset. _"We'll be gettin off, help with security, make more room for the wounded. Most of us are medic qualified, we'll see what we can do on the ground, hitch a ride later."_

0-0-0

The Blackhawk pilot didn't waste any time bringing the helicopter down, sliding sideways, whipping the tail around before the wheels hit the asphalt.

The Delta operators climbed out and headed toward still smoldering remnants of what used to be the EOD trucks.

Jack, in the lead turned toward his men, "alright, you know the drill. I'm gonna go find the head honcho. Coop, get on the horn and let Eagles nest know what we're doin and where." Jack nodded toward Mac, then scanned the group, "Mac, you're with me. Everybody watch your ass, no telling how many devices they planted around here."

As if they'd practiced it a hundred times, the Delta operators split up, each taking a different path toward the chaos. Mac jogged to catch up with Jack who was striding forward eyes scanning the area. "Jack, I could go up ahead and see if there are anymore devices other than the ones we know about."

Jack harrumphed, and waved a hand toward the smoldering trucks. "Like hell you will, not until we get security squared away, there's no telling how many more freakin car bombs they have in that village."

Jack grabbed a soldier that was headed toward the LZ, he had a bandage on his head but looked to be alright. "Hey, private, who's in charge and where do I find him?"

The soldier eyed Jack for a second then shifted his gaze to Mac, noticing the EOD patch on Mac's uniform and waved lazily toward the front of the destroyed convoy. "Sergeant Briggs, he's up front."

Jack walked away, Mac was about to follow when the private grabbed his shirt sleeve. "You're the guys that were out here last night?"

Mac pulled his arm back, "Yeah, that was us." He moved to catch up with Jack when he heard the private's raised voice from behind. "I thought you guys were supposed to let us know where the bombs were at!"

Mac didn't respond, once again having to jog to catch up with Jack. When he came along side of the older man, Jack turned to him, having heard the Private's parting comment. "Don't worry about him, there's no telling when these were planted and there's nothing we can do about the shit they set before we got here."

Mac shook his head, surveying the damage as they got closer, "Yeah, I know but it still doesn't make it any easier."

Jack spotted Briggs along the side of the road, he was talking to several men who were more than likely what was left of Charlie, pointing toward the villages off in the distance. From their body language, whatever was being said wasn't being received very well. As Mac and Jack got closer, Briggs stopped talking when he saw the pair and immediately strode toward them.

As he got closer, Mac saw the murderous look on his face and spared a glance toward Jack. Jack's jaw was set, he stopped walking and spread his feet, getting into a fighter's stance without making it obvious to anyone besides Mac.

"Dalton! You son of a bitch!" Briggs swung a right towards Jack's head, a swing the Delta operator was prepared for and easily stepped back from. Before Briggs could recover, Jack shoved the Sergeant, sending the furious man stumbling. Jack held up a hand toward the irate man, "Briggs, you better check yourself and get your godamn head on straight."

Briggs gathered his feet and spun standing tall, still seething and sending a murderous glare toward Jack before pointing a sausage finger at Mac. "You and your little pet there were supposed to give us a heads-up before we got blown to shit! What the fuck were you guys doing, sleeping or jerking off?"

Jack rested his hands on his rifle and relaxed his stance, if Mac didn't know better, he would have thought Jack was baiting the bigger man, Mac knew if Briggs charged again, Jack was ready, "Briggs, you and me can settle this back at the base once and for all but in the mean time, we need to get something that resembles security in place so we don't end up with more injured soldiers on our hands, there's no telling how many VBIED's they have left in that village ready to drive down here, and we know for a fact there are at least two more IED's up ahead."

Briggs looked around at the faces of the small crowd that had gathered and spat in the dirt. He waved a hand at the small group of soldiers that had stopped to watch the exchange, "You heard the man, quit standing there picking your nose, get your asses on security." He squinted and pointed at Jack. "You and me got a date when we get back Dalton. We lost some good men because of you and that rag tag group of screw off's you call soldiers."

Jack shifted his weight, casually resting the butt of his rifle on his hip grinning he winked and nodded at Briggs. "Get over yourself Briggs, this shit was in place before we got on station, there's more up ahead that we did map. And as for that vehicle..." Jack gave a few of the soldiers he knew weren't in Briggs squad a nod of approval, "You're damn lucky at least some of these hard chargers kept their heads and did their job, otherwise we'd be scraping you and your men up off the pavement."

Out of the corner of his eye, Mac saw Coop and Box walking toward them. Jack had seen them as well, he glanced in their direction and held up a hand, effectively stopping them from interfering. No sense in escalating the situation any more than it already was.

Briggs stepped towards Jack, Mac tensed, if the big sergeant tried anything now, Mac wasn't sure Box and Coop wouldn't kill him to protect Jack. Accidentally of course.

Briggs must have thought the same thing as he glanced toward the two very serious heavily armed Delta operators. He changed course, striding by Mac, "Outa my way!" He yelled bumping Mac's shoulder hard enough to knock him into Jack.

Jack caught Mac and steadied him. He let go and turned to go after Briggs, disregarding his earlier concern about security and not starting anything.

Mac grabbed his sleeve, "Jack just let it go, he's not worth it." Jack turned toward Mac, obviously on edge by the clenching of his jaw. "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch one of these days." Jack seethed.

Box and Coop had stepped forward and were headed toward the now unsuspecting sergeant as he walked away from them. Mac jumped in their path, and placed a hand on each man's chest, bracing his feet as if he was trying to stop a two headed freight train. Which, to the outsider wasn't that far off, considering the size difference between Mac and the two men. "Just let it go fellas, I'll, tell you the same thing I told Jack, he's not worth it. He's just a bully full of hot air and idle threats, believe me when I say I know what I'm talking about."

Coop looked down at Mac's hand then smiled, "You really think you could stop me and Box there baby brother?"

Mac stood up removing his hands as the men stood in front of him. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged, relieved that the situation had been diffused.

Box looked at Jack, jerking a thumb toward Mac. "Kid's got guts, Wyatt." Jack smiled seeming to have calmed down a bit. "That he does, man. How goes the evac?"

Coop stepped around Mac to face Jack, "All the injured have been evac'd Pete and Dunc are on a bird helping with the wounded, not sure where it's headed, they said they'd hitch a ride back to the base when they could."

Jack surveyed the scene, "Alright, well Charlie's got just enough guys here to wait for the roadies to come get this mess cleaned up and the Apache is still on station, let's get the hell outa here." Jack keyed his radio as he started walking toward the area that was being used as an LZ. _"Charlie, this is Three-Six, we're headed out unless you got anything else you need from us."_

Briggs voice crackled to life, _"Negative, don't want you, don't need you. Hold the bird, I'm comin with. We got something to settle."_

Jack didn't bother with answering, he quickened his pace toward the LZ, leaving Mac, Box and Coop staring at each other. Boxer was the first to recover and sprinted after his friend. Mac and Coop followed suit.

When Coop and Mac caught up, they heard Boxer trying to convince Jack that tangling with Briggs wasn't the best of ideas. "Wyatt, I know you want nothing more than to kick his piece of shit ass, but you're not exactly one hundred percent Bubba."

Jack spun on his friend, "What're you sayin Box? You think I can't kick his ass?"

Boxer put a hand on Jack's shoulder, a hand that was immediately removed at the look Jack sent towards his friend.

Boxer stepped back and held his hands up, realizing he was in the path of one very angry fellow Texan, "I'm just saying with that wrist of yours, it might be a bit harder is all."

Mac didn't hesitate to throw his two cents in, he knew Jack was pissed but hoped he could convince him not to get into a fight with the slightly larger uninjured man. He stood in front of Jack, "Jack, you can't get into it with Briggs, even if you win, they'll throw you in the brig. Besides, even if you can fight one handed, you just got shot."

Jack cocked his head, "The round hit my vest, I'm fine and even on his best day, I could beat Briggs with one hand tied behind my back."

Mac knew it was a risk but Jack had always said self preservation had never been one of Mac's strong suits. And if he admitted it to himself, he was angry at Jack for being so stubborn. He reached back with his left and swung, punching Jack in the right side right where the round had hit.

Jack wasn't expecting the move and hunched over guarding his ribs, in obvious discomfort.

"Oh shit!" Coop had reacted first jumping between Jack and Mac, grabbing Mac's shoulders and pushed him backwards out of Jack's reach.

Boxer seeing Coop had Mac, stepped in front of Jack.

Jack recovered quickly and on simple reaction stood up eyes searching for a target to retaliate against.

Boxer placed a friendly hand on his shoulder, using his best southern drawl, "Now Wyatt, he didn't mean anything by that, you said you were ok, now take a breath son, and calm down."

Jack cringed, still trying to catch his breath. "What the fuck Mac?"

Mac tried to get around Coop to make his point but the larger man had an iron grip on his vest. "Now Mac, you just went and poked the bear, you might want to just take a breath and calm down a bit." He said quietly, "No sense in you getting your teeth knocked in."

While Coop and Box were acting as referees, Briggs walked up behind the group. "Jesus Christ! Jack, you can't even control that little piss ant of an EOD tech. I'm gonna enjoy kickin your ass!" He walked by Mac who was still in Coop's firm grip and pointed at him. "When I get done with ole Jack, I might kick your useless ass just for the fun of it."

Coop and Box, figured they'd just found their common enemy and let both of their captives go. Mac headed straight for Briggs, his adrenaline already flowing. He pulled his fist back and began to swing when an arm stopped his momentum. Jack stepped in front of him, obviously having forgotten Mac's earlier attempt and making a point. "Not here Mac, I'll tell you what, after I get done with that piece of shit, you can give it a go."

Jack spun on Briggs. "As soon as we land, you and me at the range. I've had enough of your bullshit Briggs."

Briggs had seen the earlier exchange between Mac and Jack, he knew Jack wasn't one hundred percent, he didn't know why but it was an advantage he was willing to exploit. "You got it, just keep your lap dogs in check while I kick your ass."

Mac's less than flattering rebuttal was drowned out by the thump of the rotors as their helicopter landed at the LZ.

To be continued...

A/N: I hope you enjoyed. This is for all of you that wanted to see Briggs and Jack go at it based on the back story from Viper. So, stay tuned.

Acronyms: FOB - Forward Operating Base, ROE: Rules of Engagement, TOC- Tactical Operations Center, IED-Improvised Explosive Device, VBIED-Vehicle Borne IED,

Mikes-short for minutes, Oscar Mike-On the Move. If I missed any let me know. I know they don't all apply to this chapter but I will use them again eventually, maybe.

I finally get to go home and I'm spent, so apologies for any glaring errors in this, My brain is fried but I wanted to get it posted before I'm Oscar Mike. :P

-Gib-


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Well, here it is, the final chapter in this part of the G.I. series. There will be more, I just have to think of something, which could be a while. Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. As always, a huge thanks to Dlwells51, none of this stuff would see the light of day if it weren't for her, she's my fanfic security blanket. I changed quite a bit of this since she's seen it last so all mistakes are definitely mine.

Warning: Violence

Disclaimer: Nope, even after all this time, I still don't own anything having to do with the tv show MacGyver.

0-0-0

The ride back to the forward operating base took less than forty minutes but to everyone inside the crew compartment of the Blackhawk, it seemed like hours.

Briggs sat on the right side of the helicopter, as far away from Box and Coop, as he possibly could without falling out. The two operators had strategically placed their bulk between Mac and Briggs as they sat facing forward.

Briggs' attempt at glaring at Jack was lost on the operator as Jack had set his back against the bulkhead, left foot hanging out the door. As soon as they'd lifted off, he closed his eyes, seeming to be asleep, not a care in the world. Coop and Box shared an amused look as Jack's nonchalant attitude infuriated Briggs even more.

Mac wasn't sure what to think, this was a whole new situation. He'd been on the receiving end of being bullied and had been saved on one particular occasion by his best friend Bozer, but that was in grade school. These were two very deadly, very pissed grown men about to go at it.

Mac was concerned for Jack. He knew Jack was a good fighter, he had, after all, shown Mac quite a few moves and was deceptively quick when it came to hand to hand combat, but he was hurt. Mac had proven that. And Briggs was bigger than Jack, not by much, but bigger all the same.

Mac watched as Box and Coop seemed to be taking everything in stride, grinning and elbowing each other occasionally when one of them said something only the other could hear.

The closer to the base they got, the more nervous Mac became. Coop and Box didn't seem to be the least bit nervous and Jack looked like he was asleep. Mac couldn't stop fidgeting, the small piece of wire he'd pulled out of his pocket had been twisted into so many different shapes, the plastic coating had worn out and the wire had started to break.

As the helicopter started to descend, Jack opened his eyes and straightened, instantly alert. He leaned forward and unclipped his rifle, handing it to Boxer without a word, the relaxed state he was in, replaced by a business like set to his jaw.

As the helicopter touched down, Jack jumped out turned around and used the floor of the helicopter as a shelf for all of his gear. He removed his helmet, turning it upside down, throwing his gloves and elbow pads in the upturned head gear. The ear piece and vest were next. Jack unclipped the waist belt and leg straps of the thigh holster and handed the pistol to Coop as the big man ducked out of the helicopter. Jack leaned over and pulled a knife from his boot and deposited it in his helmet.

Mac surveyed the group, he couldn't see what Briggs was doing but, by the looks of his friends, he would have thought they were getting ready to go out on a mission. He swallowed nervously, as the words Search and Destroy came to mind.

Mac remained in the helicopter, not wanting to step over the top of Jack while the operator was removing the tools of his trade. As nervous for his friend as he was, he was also relieved to see Jack removing all of his weapons because at this point, he wasn't entirely sure Jack wouldn't kill Briggs given their history.

Before Mac could exit the helicopter, Jack looked up, "Do me a favor and watch my stuff, this ain't gonna take long."

Jack yelled through the crew compartment to the other side where Briggs was standing. "You ready asshole? Let's get this over with, my dinner's waitin."

Mac slung Jack's vest over his shoulder and held the helmet and it's contents under his arm as the group followed Jack to the range.

A few soldiers that were standing around, watched as the group strode by. By their reaction, they had recognized that something serious was going down. Mac watched as they dropped their heads and headed in the opposite direction, as if they hadn't seen a thing.

When Jack and company arrived at the range, Briggs unclipped his rifle and bent down to set it on a shooting bench. Before he could stand, Jack swung a haymaker left, hitting Briggs in the side of the head. Briggs dropped to a knee, reaching up hanging onto the post to keep from falling.

Jack stepped back, waiting for Briggs to recover. He knew he was in for a fight as soon as Briggs seemed to brush off the punch.

Coop leaned toward Mac, "I'd have kept going if it were me, Jack's being nice."

Briggs spat and stood up, still in full combat gear. "You mind if I shed this stuff or you plan on sucker punching me again?"

Jack took another step back and held his arms out to the side. "Go right ahead, figured I owed you at least that much you piece of shit, consider us even for that crap you pulled back at Slappy's."

Briggs laid his vest on the bench and unclipped his pistol depositing it next to his rifle. "You deserved everything you got, I would have passed selection if it weren't for you and you're dirty tactics."

Jack smiled a feral smile. "Like the man said when he booted your sorry ass, there are no rules in fighting, and I don't fight fair."

Briggs reached up as if to undo his helmet, "Neither do I!" He suddenly charged forward tackling Jack. The move caught everyone by surprise, Mac heard the air rush out of Jack as the two men hit the ground. Briggs had left his helmet, gloves and elbow pads on when he'd attacked.

Mac and Coop both stepped forward as Briggs used his helmet to head butt Jack who was still on the bottom of the pile. Boxer reached an arm out stopping their forward progress. "Just leave em be, this has been a long time coming and ole Wyatt can handle himself, don't you worry, Briggs is about to get schooled."

Mac appreciated Boxer's optimism but at the moment, it didn't look like Jack was schooling anyone as Briggs was still on top of Jack, swinging wildly as he drove a knee into Jack's side.

Jack shifted his shoulders rolling slightly to the left and brought his right arm under Briggs throat. As soon as Briggs drove his knee into Jack's side, Jack grunted and threw his left arm out to the side and pushed up with his legs and arm while pulling Briggs head to the right. Briggs toppled over, being knocked off balance by the move.

Before Briggs had finished going over, Jack kicked his feet out, the move was so fast, Mac couldn't figure out how he had done it but Jack was now standing crouched behind Briggs, holding him in a head lock.

Jack's face showed no emotion, but his voice carried a deadly tone. "I could snap your neck right now and end this shit." Jack squeezed adding more pressure to back up his words. "But I ain't gonna do that, I figure you need to be taught a lesson, you threatened the wrong kid this time son." Jack let go and stepped back just out of range as Briggs spun around and stood in a boxer's stance. "You're all talk Dalton, always flapping your lip," he feigned a right and swung a left uppercut that Jack barely avoided, coming in landing a left of his own to Brigg's middle.

Briggs swept his right leg catching Jack in the left knee. Jack had so far been able to use his left exclusively but the leg sweep had left his right vulnerable and he knew what was coming if he didn't retaliate. Every possible move ran through his head in the matter of a split second. Before Briggs could follow the leg sweep with the typical left hook, Jack threw a right cross that connected with Brigg's jaw.

The explosion of pain in his wrist was worse than the original injury and Jack's face instantly turned a shade paler. Briggs tried the leg sweep again, and again, on instinct alone, Jack swung his right, this time Briggs ducked his head and Jack's fist connected with the soldiers helmet.

The trio watching cringed at the sound.

Jack stepped back holding his hand protectively against his side.

Mac, Box, and Coop all saw the look on Jack's face and knew this fight just got a little more complicated and quite possibly a lot more dangerous. A hurt Jack was a pissed Jack, and a pissed Jack was nothing to mess with.

Briggs, knew Jack had hurt his hand and tried to take advantage of it, attacking Jack's right side, throwing lefts to the body and at his head.

Jack fended off most of the blows and followed with a few lefts of his own, but a few of Briggs shots had connected, opening a gash above Jack's right eye.

Mac looked at Boxer, "We should do something, Jack's hurt, this isn't a fair fight."

Boxer grinned, "You're right Mac, it isn't fair, just give him a bit, Jack's still figuring Briggs out."

Mac shook his head, "Stubborn and stupid must be contagious, I can't believe you're just going to watch."

Box leaned forward to look at Mac. "This has been a long time coming, Jack would never forgive us if we jumped in, even if he does gets his ass kicked." He pointed a finger at Mac, "Which ain't gonna happen." He said matter of factly.

Coop, didn't seem as confident in Jack's abilities as Boxer, but added, "Besides, he's just getting warmed up." putting up a good front, as the two men continued to exchange punches.

Just as Mac was about to ignore the advice of the two operators and put a stop to the fight, Jack stepped back away from Briggs and held his left hand up pausing the action. "Briggs, I just want to give you fair warning, I'm gonna put you in the hospital."

Briggs laughed and spat, "Good fuckin luck with that, you're finished, got a busted hand, I'm gonna finish breaking the rest of that arm for ya."

Jack held his hand up and pointed at Briggs. "I've given you fair warning, whatever happens from now on, is on you, and I swear to God, if you so much as mention my name to the MP's, what I'm about to do to you will feel like a massage, you understand?"

The look on Jack's face was one Mac hoped to never see again, the man he was watching wasn't the same man he'd considered to be his friend, this man was a killer pure and simple.

Jack was looking at Briggs like he could see right through him, stepping forward with both fists clenched, coming within reach of Briggs.

"Screw you Dalton!" Brigg's took a swing toward Jack's ribs, instead of trying to side step or step back out of the way, Jack moved forward into the punch trapping Briggs arm against his side, quickly throwing an elbow that connected with the man's head. Briggs' arm still trapped at his side, Jack grabbed Briggs wrist with both hands, raising the bigger man's arm and spinning in one fluid move, Jack didn't stop with the simple wrist lock, instead he added more pressure snapping the man's wrist and thumb, driving him to his knees.

Jack stood with Briggs wrist still in an iron grip, and drove his knee into Briggs face, blood ran freely from the bigger man's broken nose and split lip.

He lifted Briggs up using the wrist lock as leverage to effectively steer the bigger man. Once Briggs was standing, Jack let go and immediately kicked Briggs in the knee, once again driving the man to the ground. Briggs howled in pain as Jack threw another knee into the already bloody face.

Briggs swayed and tried to swing a left at Jack who sidestepped and brought an elbow down onto the top of Briggs helmet.

Coop and Box both cringed at the move, as if they were the ones that had been hit. "Damn, boss' not messing around anymore." Coop shared a concerned looked with Boxer, as Mac stood frozen in place, transfixed on the scene before him.

Mac was no stranger to violence, he'd seen what people could do to each other in the name of war, but this was different, this was almost barbaric, it didn't seem real, like he was watching a movie.

Boxer pursed his lips, "We'll let it go for a bit longer, if it looks like he's gonna kill him, we'll put a stop to it."

Boxer's comment brought Mac out of the spell he was under. He noticed for the first time the concerned looks on the faces of the two operators and turned his attention back to Jack, equally concerned but not for Briggs, but for Jack, Briggs may have lost but Jack wasn't going to come out of this unscathed.

Jack walked around behind Briggs, picking up the dazed man's left arm again holding him in a wrist lock effectively controlling downed man as if he were a puppet. Jack put his hand on Brigg's right shoulder and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "I lied when I said we were even for Slappy's." Jack stood up planting a knee in Briggs' back and pulled the arm he still held by the wrist back so fast everyone heard the audible snap of bones breaking followed by a viscous leg sweep that connected with Briggs exposed ribs. He was about to deliver another crushing blow when Boxer yelled and stepped forward. "Jack! He's had enough!"

Jack stopped mid swing and shoved Briggs arm down in disgust, and shoved Briggs over onto his side.

Jack walked toward Mac, who was standing mouth agape at what he'd just witnessed. Without uttering a single word, Jack simply grabbed his vest and threw it on, along with the rest of his gear, slinging the rifle and adjusting the strap with his left hand. Coop handed Jack the thigh holster and pistol.

Finally finding his voice, Jack looked at Coop with a grimace as he tried to push the buckles together. "Gimme a hand getting this thing strapped, my wrist is toast.

Coop did as requested.

Fully geared up, with the exception of the remnants of the fight, he looked like he'd just stepped off the chopper.

Jack stalked around to Briggs' front and crouched in his line of sight, rifle resting across his lap. Briggs had somewhat gotten himself into a seated position and was cradling his arm against his side as a string of blood and saliva ran off his chin.

Jack pulled the slide back on his rifle ejecting a round, gritting his teeth as he caught it in mid air. He held it up in front of Briggs face. "Briggs, don't think there's a place on this earth you can hide from me if you ever decide to threaten one of my guys again, or you'll never see it comin. Jack stood up and dropped the live round in Briggs lap. Briggs' chin dropped to his chest. Jack reached out and shoved him, causing the injured man to fall over once more.

Jack, having finished with the man, walked away coming to a stop in front of Box and Coop and thumbed over his shoulder, "Take that piece of shit to the infirmary and drop him off."

Coop and Box stepped around Jack and helped Briggs to his feet, neither one being too gentle with their assistance.

As they passed half supporting the dazed soldier, Coop reached down and collected Briggs gear. "Shoulda shed all your gear man, boss doesn't like cheaters, leaving your helmet and gloves on was a dick move dude." Coop looked at Mac and winked before talking to the stunned Briggs. "And you should've known better than to threaten our baby brother man, probably would have saved you a couple of months of rehab."

"Coop's right, you're lucky Jack didn't kill you, if I were you, I'd put in for a transfer as soon as you get out of the hospital, or Jack's not the only one you'll have to worry about." Boxer added as they continued toward the infirmary.

Jack sat on the shooting bench right arm tight against his side. Mac stepped forward and crouched so he could look Jack in the eye. "Are you ok?" He asked nervously.

Jack's head bobbed as he let out a short laugh followed by a grimace. "Not really, think I did a number on my wrist. Busted my hand on that asshole's head, my ribs weren't cracked before, I'm pretty sure they are now." He stood up taking a second before slowly walking away from the range. "And I'm freaking starving man, haven't eaten since before we left." He looked sideways at Mac squinting and smiling, trying to ease some of the fear he saw in the younger man's eyes.

Mac, shook off the uneasiness he felt toward Jack, the other Jack. the one that had so effectively broken a man. He shoved those images to the back of his mind and concentrated on _his_ Jack, the one that was hurt and bleeding, the one that he called friend.

Jack threw his left arm around Mac's shoulder, "Come on, I'll buy you dinner."

"What about your wrist?" Mac ducked out of the hold, trying to get a better look at the older man.

"I'll get it looked at after we eat, don't want to be in there with Briggs." Jack looked toward the helipad and watched Coop and Box in the distance, half dragging, half carrying Briggs to the infirmary.

Mac shrugged, finally giving up on trying to convince Jack to take care of his injury, for now. "Alright, dinner first but you might want to stop by the barracks before we go."

At Jack's confused look, Mac pointed toward Jack's face. "I don't think anyone wants to watch you bleed while they eat, you got a pretty good cut above your eye there."

Jack reached up to touch the cut when Mac slapped his hand away. "Don't touch it, your hands are filthy."

The corner of Jack's mouth turned up, a far-off look in his eyes, "You have no idea."

0-0-0

By the time they'd reached the barracks, Jack's wrist and hand were throbbing to the rhythm of his heart beat. Mac stepped up and opened the door for Jack to enter. "You need any help with your gear?"

Jack walked up the steps, holding his arm at chest level. "Nah, I'm just gonna drop this stuff, grab a new shirt and clean up a bit."

Mac followed Jack inside and down the narrow hallway stopping at his own room. "Holler if you need help," he looked at the state of his own attire before stepping in. "Hey Jack!" He yelled as he started to remove his gear.

"Yeah?" Jack yelled from his own room.

"Maybe you should go to the infirmary before dinner." Mac pulled his shirt over his head and threw it in the hamper he'd made.

"Dude, give it a rest, I'll go after chow."

Mac knew Jack wasn't looking forward to having his wrist examined again and while it was true they hadn't had a chance to eat in quite a while, Mac suspected Jack was using Briggs as an excuse to delay the inevitable. "If you need surgery on your wrist again, they won't do it if you've eaten recently."

Jack had managed to remove his own shirt, standing in front of the mirror he held up his right arm, turning sideways to get a look at his side in the mirror. "Yeah, so, what's your point?"

Mac pulled a clean black t-shirt out of his foot locker and slipped it over his head. "Well, if the bones need to be set, the sooner the better, you know that much."

Jack finished with his self assessment, he figured by the way it felt he had one maybe two cracked ribs. He pulled a wet wipe out of the container that sat on top of an old ammo can and began to wipe the blood and grime off of his face. "Yeah, I know, but they're probably pretty busy right now, I imagine they brought at least some of those wounded here."

He grabbed a Dallas Cowboys shirt off of the pile he'd designated as 'mostly clean' and held it up, giving it a sniff. "Besides, I want to give them a chance to get Briggs squared away so's we don't end up waiting in the lobby together, know what I mean?" Deciding the shirt was clean, Jack gingerly ran his right hand through the sleeve.

Mac ran a hand through his hair, not bothering with the small mirror on the wall. Deciding he was cleaned up enough to be Jack's escort he stepped into the hall. "Right, I doubt they'll make him wait, you did a pretty good number on him."

Jack managed to get the t-shirt on, not bothering to tuck it in. "Yeah, I might have gotten a little carried away." He admitted, as he stepped into the hall and started toward the door.

Mac decided to change tactics as he walked in front of Jack towards the door. "Well, you know you can't wait too long, we've established that. But, if you eat now and they decide you need surgery, they'll just keep you there until they think all that food is digested." Mac held the door open following Jack outside, "I could go into all the science behind the human digestive system..."

Jack held up his hand and squinted in disgust. "Dude, don't, I don't need to know how my food ends up, well, ends up being, you know."

Mac smiled, "My point is, I imagine if you eat dinner now, before going to the infirmary, you're probably going to have to spend at least an extra day there."

Jack contemplated what Mac had said and sighed, dropping his head in defeat. "Fine, I'll go see the damn doc," he looked up annoyed. "You happy now?"

Mac grinned, "Actually, yes Jack, I am." He admitted truthfully, as Doctor Morgan's words echoed in his head, _"All you have to do is know how they think."_

Jack looked at Mac taking in his appearance for the first time. "Probably a good thing I go now anyways instead of heading to the mess."

Mac's brow furrowed, adding concussion to the possible list of injuries. "I thought we just agreed on that."

The corner of Jack's mouth turned up. "Yeah, but my reason is better. There's no way I'm going to dinner with you while you're wearing that shirt."

Mac looked down at his shirt, pulling at the hem to get a better look and realized he'd grabbed one of the shirts Coop had given him for Christmas. He could feel the heat rise in his face as he looked around making sure no one had seen him yet.

Jack laughed holding his side, "I swear Mac, I've already been in one fight today, you wear that in the mess, and you're on your own man, I mean come on, you think nobody will give you shit if you go walking around the base with DORK plastered across your chest?"

"Shut up Jack." There was no malice in his voice as he turned to go back to the barracks.

"Oh no you don't." Jack grabbed his arm turning him back in the direction of the infirmary. "You wanted to go to the infirmary, we're going to the infirmary."

Jack let go of Mac's arm, "Come on your dorkness, let's get this over with so I can go get something to eat and you can go change." Jack shook his head, "Can't take you anywhere dude."

Mac crossed his arms trying to conceal the large white letters. The move only made Jack laugh more, cringing and holding his side as they kept walking.

0-0-0

Jack sat in the barracks ready room, that acted as part living room, game room, team briefing room and today, much to his displeasure, his office. He sat sideways in the plastic lounge chair, leg hanging over the arm rest, a large clip board in his lap, struggling to write his report on the last mission.

Jack reached in his pocket, pulling out the bottle of pain pills Doc Morgan had prescribed and growled in frustration as he tried to open the bottle.

The cast Doctor Morgan had put him in covered not only his wrist and forearm, it encompassed his ring and pinky finger as well, making writing and more recently manipulating the pill bottle a serious challenge.

Finally successful, he shook two pills out and popped them in his mouth, washing them down with water from the camelback that Mac had strategically place on the back of his chair.

Jack tried to flex his fingers as he studied the cast. Dr. Morgan hadn't bought the open ended explanation that Jack had gotten a boxer's fracture and re injured his newly repaired wrist by "running around the country side, shooting bad guys," as Jack had put it. Luckily for Jack, Morgan hadn't pressed the issue even after he had set the break and applied the cast, casually mentioning a Sergeant that had been dropped on the front steps of the infirmary in pretty bad shape by a couple of soldiers that looked suspiciously like Jack's men.

Jack smiled as he recalled, what the Doc had said while he was finishing stitching the cut over Jack's eye, "Apparently, I need to stock up on cast materials and sutures if you can break your hand and crack your ribs, just running around the countryside. And that sergeant has a number of broken bones from falling off a truck? You boys are gonna have to be a little more careful around here." He had joked. Jack knew Morgan had put two and two together, but Jack wasn't going to admit to anything, not even to the former Delta turned doctor. "Must have been a very angry truck." Was all he had said.

Jack's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, not bothering to get up, he yelled, "Enter!"

The Major that was the liaison between the spec ops and regular army in the TOC stepped in, removing his cover. The greying man looked around the room, shaking his head at the maps, posters and general clutter that Jack and his boys had collected, turning the makeshift building into something that looked more like it belonged on a college campus rather than a forward operating base.

Jack remained seated and smiled at the Major, "Welcome to our humble abode, I'd offer you a beer but we're fresh out." He joked, knowing the Major had a stash of beer in his own hooch.

As he passed, the major swiped his fingers across the top of the makeshift table, looking around as if he was conducting an inspection. "Love what you've done with the place Jack, you're lucky Delta took you bunch of misfits, you'd never make it in the regular Army."

Jack laughed and waved at the chair next to him. "You're right, all them damn regulations and all, we'd probably be peeling potatoes and scrubbing latrines until we were old and gray." Jack motioned to the chair beside him. "Have a seat, take a load off Sir, you can watch me try to fill these damn reports out." Jack held his cast up. "My writing was terrible before, wait till they get a load of it now."

The Major shook his head, "Can't stay long, have a briefing to get to, just wanted to stop by and give you this." He pulled a sheet of legal sized paper out of his satchel and handed it to Jack. "Where's the rest of the bunch?" He stepped back to look down the hall.

Jack's brow furrowed, curious as to what was on the sheet. "They're out for a run, should be back in an hour or so." He said distractedly as he mentally translated the writing on the paper, realizing it was the Afghan equivalent of a wanted poster.

"You do know, we're supposed to be winning the hearts and minds of these people Jack, I don't think this is exactly what the Army had in mind." The Major pointed to the poster.

Jack looked at the photo in the center of the writing, it was a picture of him pointing his weapon toward the camera and flipping off the photographer, Mac standing beside him, concerned look on his face. "Yeah, well the kid that took this picture..." Jack flipped the sheet around pointing to the picture as he held it. "Was part of that bunch that was planting IED's along 71, before we blew them up with their own bomb." Jack held the poster out toward the Major intending on giving it back. "Kid's lucky I didn't put a round through his melon. Where'd you get this?"

The major waved his hand, "Keep it, this is just one of God knows how many that are out there, that little village you boys were watching a few days ago... they're plastered all over the place, Rangers raided it after we got the road cleared. Nice work by the way, those IED's were right where you said they'd be."

Jack studied the poster, "Thanks, too bad we didn't know about the two that hit Seagrave and his boys. Fifty thousand?" He looked up at the Major, "What's that in U.S. currency?"

The major rocked back on his heels, eyebrows raised, "That is U.S. currency Jack," He pointed at the description on the bottom of the poster. "And it's fifty thousand for each of you." He looked at his watch, "I have to go, just thought you'd like to know there's a price on your head, you get that cast off and get back out there, you better watch your ass, the bad guys know who you two are now, or at least what you look like anyway."

Jack smiled and slowly eased himself out of the chair. "I'll keep that in mind."

The Major stopped at the door and turned, "I don't know what went down exactly but I've got a sergeant in the infirmary says he fell off a truck," he pointed at Jack's cast. "By the way your moving, that cast, and those stitches, you wouldn't happen to know what happened would you?"

Jack lifted the cast, "Nah, got this a while back, and as for the rest," he shrugged, "Let's just say it was a little lesson on manners that got a bit outa hand."

The Major smiled, pushed the door open and shook his head as he left. "Goddamn bunch of cowboys."

Jack held the paper up, studying the image and the writing on the wanted poster as the door closed.

He walked over to the wall and pulled one of Mac's stick pins from the map, holding the paper up he pinned it to the wall. "Bring it on you bastards, I ain't goin nowhere." He rapped the cast against the photo before heading back to the chair. "Damn Army paperwork's gonna kill me before any of you sorry bastards can get the chance anyway."

-End-

A/N: Well, there it is, I hope you enjoyed it. I think I was a bit angry when I wrote the fight scene. Nothing like using fictional characters to take out a bit of aggression, it's kind of therapeutic. ;-)

Thanks to everyone that took the time to review and send helpful tips, I really appreciate it. Oh, and please feel free to point out any errors, I can still go back and edit for any newcomers that happen along.

Last but not least, For all you prospective writers out there, bite the bullet, take a chance and post. We need more fic to pass the summer. The group of people in this fandom are some of the nicest most helpful I've come across, nothing to be intimidated by, they're great.

-Gib-


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